There’s a boy at school who is “secret friends” with my son. My poor little Leverett. They can’t be friends on the way to school, or at school, but they can on the bus home. And it’s terrible and I don’t know how to handle it. I’ve started by explaining that friends are people who are never unkind to you, but … well it just doesn’t really work, does it.

How do you teach children that the world is a sucky place?

Or am I totally blowing this out of proportion? Is this a normal thing?

…help?