>Frenemies

My three-year-old daughter Punky and one of her soccer friends were playing Ring Around the Rosie last Saturday when our neighbor’s five-year-old son ran up to them, planted his feet firmly in the grass, and put on his best scowl.

“Ring around the rosie,” he sang loudly through clinched teeth, “Pocket full of lizards!”

The two girls looked at him, thunderstruck.

“No!” Punky shouted in outrage. “It’s ‘Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies!”

“Ring around the rosie,” he repeated, even louder, “Pocket full of lizards!”

Watching this scene play out, my 14-year-old stepdaughter and I looked at each other and giggled. Punky and her friend ran off to play their game elsewhere, but the neighbor boy continued to torment her whenever she was on the sidelines. Punky is the smallest girl on her team, literally half the size of the largest player, and I wondered how she’d react to this extra-pesky little boy, after playing almost exclusively with other girls all her life. I didn’t have to wonder long.

“I said no!” I heard her shouting a few minutes later. “You go away! Go! Away!” I looked over in time to catch her pushing him in the chest as hard as she could with her little hands. He stumbled backward, surprised, and she took the opportunity to push him again. He fell to the ground.

I beamed with pride before quickly going over to her. “No, Punky,” I said sternly, helping up the neighbor boy. “We don’t knock down boys who are much older and bigger than us. You don’t want him to cry like a little baby, do you?” I smiled brightly at the boy, before patting his head. “I’m so sorry my little girl beat you up,” I murmured. “Run along now.”

He scampered away and didn’t bother her again, at least until Halloween night. When Punky marched up to his front door in her frothy Snow White costume, he leaped out at her, dressed in full Storm Trooper garb. Punky didn’t flinch. The neighbor boy got right in her face and quickly flipped up his mask, so that she could see who he was. Punky was unfazed. She put her hands on her hips and glared right back at him. They stood this way for a moment, before she proclaimed, “Now it’s time to get candy!” and abandoned him for his dad, who was waiting at the front door.

I have the feeling that this is the start of a very interesting relationship.

This post originally appeared on Parents.com.