The Joy of Not CaringRegular readers probably know that Wyatt...

The Joy of Not Caring

Regular readers probably know that Wyatt has what you’d call a big personality. Anywhere he goes, he’s a party. Seriously, the kid goes to 11. And stays there.

Because of that, he gets a lot of attention at school, not all of it good. He gets picked on kinda regularly by some, others might just say something mean in passing. Some go out of their way to put him down.

My initial reaction when I learned this was to say, “The next kid that does that, punch them in the fucking face.” Thankfully, he didn’t take that advice. Not only does his school have a zero-tolerance policy for fighting, but I may have been in a somewhat emotional state when I said it.

Since then, we’ve talked a lot about not letting bullies or even a friend who says something mean “take your power.” He understands insults only have an effect if you let them. But I also understand that is easier to do in theory than in practice. So I decided to give Wyatt a way to be active in rebutting any mean kids while also using one of his strengths.

I suggested next time someone says something mean to him, he not just ignore it, but rather show the kid just how much he didn’t care. We made up a bunch of ways for him to make a joke of the whole thing by delivering the line “I don’t care.”

Singing “I doooooooooooon’t CAAAAAAAAAAARE!”
Apologizing with “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of I DON’T CARE!”
Dancing to the beat of “I don’t care, yeah! I don’t care, ha!”
Sympathetically saying “Oh, that’s too bad because I don’t care.”
Etc.

We came up with about 20 super-theatrical ways he could deliver the line. He was crying with laughter by the end.

The very next day, a girl in his grade walked up to him and said she was rating other kids by how annoying they were and Wyatt was at the top of the list.

Wyatt said, “Oh, OK. Well, let me show you how much I care.” He then reached into his pocket, pretended to pull something out, and opened his hand to show it was empty.

Boom, motherfucker! (Side note: The girl actually went to tell on him for it, then she got in trouble for rating other kids. Ha! Double-boom!)

He was so happy when he came home and told me the story. Now he’s not just turning the other cheek, but he’s empowered, he’s weaponized with his wit and his showmanship.

So to the kids picking on him—Bring it on, assholes. We don’t fucking care.