HGTV star Erin Napier is sharing a Facebook post about girls and cliques that made her “say ‘yes’ aloud.”
In the lengthy post, a mom named Lindsey Barker revealed that her 7-year-old daughter, Paisley, stands alone at recess.
“I ask her who she plays with on the playground…” Barker wrote. “She says nobody. I say why? She says: ‘Well I asked these two girls and they told me no. Then I asked these two girls and they said no too. So I just sat under the tree.’ And nobody came.”
Barker believes that kindness begins at home, and is raising Paisley to “be a friend to everyone” — but especially the child who looks lonely. So why aren’t more people doing the same?
“Mamas are you telling your kids every morning before school to be a friend to everyone?” Barker asked. “Bringing your kids to church doesn’t make them love like Jesus. You must tell them: THIS IS HOW YOU’RE GONNA ACT AND THIS IS HOW YOU AINT GONNA ACT. period. Your kids are meanies because you’ve let them be.”
Napier, who shares daughters, Helen, 3, and Mae, 2 months, with her “Home Town” costar, Ben Napier, couldn’t agree more.
“I was the odd ball sitting alone. The ugly duckling. I desperately wanted someone to want to sit by me on the bus,” the “Home Town” star recalled on her Instagram story. “It shapes the character of the adults we become and in that way, it wasn’t all bad for me.”
“I fell in love with Ben Napier because in college, I watched as he went to sit beside the person eating alone. I needed him when I was younger. I married him because of his character in those kinds of situations. And a million other reasons.”
“Teach your babies to look for the loner. It will change both of them, forever.”
Barker’s post has been shared more than 26,000 times since August 11.
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