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Courtney and Gwen are very different people. This continues into their parenting styles. Courtney is a complete helicopter mom, making sure their daughter is doing her homework and harassing her teachers whenever Katherine doesn’t get the grades she expected. But Gwen is more of a laid back mom, wanting Katherine to learn how to do things without her always prompting, because she sees that as a better way to grow up. And they often bicker about this, much to Katherine’s amusement.
But they’ve never really argued about parenting Katherine. At least until one day, when Gwen learns that Katherine is being bullied.
“Mom, can I talk to you?” Katherine says, twisting a lock of her hair around her finger as she wanders over.
Gwen puts down her sewing (she’s sewing a patch on Katherine’s Girl Scouts uniform) and looks at her. Katherine is nervous. What’s going on?
“Course you can, darling,” she says. “Is something wrong?”
Katherine sits down next to her, still twisting her hair. “Um… well… there’s this girl at school and… and she’s… well, she’s not being very nice to me.”
Gwen’s stomach clenches. Is this what she thinks it is? Is Katherine going through the same awful shit that happened to her at school?
“Is she… is she bullying you?”
Katherine doesn’t look at her. Slowly, she nods her head.
Gwen wants to cry. instead, she holds Katherine’s hand.
“What has she been doing?”
“Picking on me,” Katherine whispers. “She called me ugly and said I’ve got d-dyke moms. What does that even mean?”
She sighs. “It’s a really nasty word for women who love other women. Like me and Mom.”
“So it’s a bad word?”
“Yea, darling. A real bad word.” She squeezes Katherine’s hand and tries her best to smile. “Now, I think we need to tell your Mom about this.”
Katherine nods, and they head off to locate Courtney, still holding hands. Gwen can’t believe it. How can this girl be bullying her wonderful daughter? This is so unfair.
They find Courtney in the study, looking over notes for her court case tomorrow.
“Courtney?” Gwen says.
Courtney looks up. When she sees Gwen and Katherine’s anxious expressions, she frowns.
“Is something wrong?”
“Very,” Gwen says. “Look, Courts, Kathy’s being bullied.”
Courtney gasps. She rushes over and crouches down to Katherine’s height, putting her hands on their daughter’s shoulders. “You’re being bullied? Katherine, how long has this been going on?”
Katherine looks away, near tears.
“Katherine?” Courtney says.
“About three weeks.”
Courtney sighs. “Why didn’t you tell us?”
Katherine shrugs. “I dunno. But… but I’ve told you now. Is that okay?”
“Of course it’s okay,” Gwen says, ruffling Katherine’s curly hair. “It’s great you’ve been brave enough to tell us.” She makes eye contact with Courtney, looking into her wife’s eyes. “But the real issue is what we’re gonna do about this.”
“Yes, what are we going to do about this?” Courtney says. “I think we need to tell your teacher.”
“No!” Katherine cries. “Then she’ll call me a snitch and bully me worse than ever.” She clings to Gwen and glares at Courtney. “Mom, make her understand!”
Courtney stares at her. “What?”
But Gwen knows exactly what Katherine means. When she was bullied at school, her mom told the teachers about it. Soon, she was getting bullied even worse.
“She’s got a point, Courts,” she says. “We don’t want to try our best to help but only make it worse.”
“But that’s how you’re meant to deal with bullying,” Courtney says. “Tell the school administration and they’ll solve the problem.”
“Courtney, come down to Earth, for god’s sake!” Gwen says, exasperated. “I was bullied too. I know what it’s like. I know how it feels for the school to do shit all and make everything worse.”
“Don’t swear in front of Kathy!” Courtney snaps.
“We’re still arguing in front of her, whether or not I swear!”
Courtney looks at Katherine, and seems to remember that she’s even there. She stands up and brushes her hair off of her face. She glares at Gwen, sighing slowly.
“Kathy, darling, can you go and watch some TV or something?” she says. “We need to talk about this on our own.”
Katherine looks incredibly concerned, knowing that they’ll row even worse with her out of the way, but she nods her head and leaves the study. The moment their daughter leaves, Courtney turns around and snaps, “How dare you act like I’ll make everything worse!?”
“Well you probably will!” Gwen yells, so frustrated she could scream. Her normally pale face has gone bright red. “I know that this is like. It’s not like the law, Courtney. It’s not that fucking simple. Kids are cruel and they hurt you even more when they’re told off. And then nothing changes, until you’re miserable as sin and you feel like you want to just end it all…”
Gwen trails off, shocked to find her face wet. She’s crying. She’s actually crying.
Courtney stares at her. “Gwen? It made you want to…?”
She nods. She’s never told Courtney about this, about how the bullying when she was in middle school made her actually question suicide.
“Oh my god,” Courtney mutters. “I had no idea. Gwen…”
Despite the fact they were arguing a minute ago, Courtney rushes forwards and hugs Gwen tightly.
“So I know it makes me seem like an asshole,” Gwen says, trying her hardest to stop her voice wobbling. “But I really do know more about this than you. I know how much bullying fucks you up. I know how the school is awful. And I know how parents intervening can easily make it way worse.”
Courtney sighs shakily; she’s crying too. “But then what’re we supposed to do? We can’t just do nothing.”
“I know!” Gwen moans. “God, I wonder if this is how my mom and dad felt.”
“Should we talk to her parents?”
“I dunno. Maybe we should just tell Kathy that, the next time this girl bullies her, she punches her round the face?” Gwen suggests.
“No!” Courtney cries. “How many times, Gwen? Violence isn’t the answer!”
She sighs, her eyes already sore from crying. “I know, I know. But… what else should we do?”
“I wish I knew,” Courtney says, sighing.
---
That evening, when they are putting Katherine to bed, their daughter looks up at them.
“Um, did you two fight?” Katherine asks.
They look at each other.
“A bit,” Gwen says. “But we’re okay now.”
Katherine smiles, relieved. But her smile fades. “And… what about the… bully?”
Gwen reaches for Courtney’s hand and squeezes it.
“We’re going to talk to the school,” Courtney says.
Katherine is about to protest, but Gwen cuts her off.
“But don’t worry,” Gwen says. “We’re gonna let you stay home that day. And… and if that girl keeps bullying on you, Mom’ll go full lawyer on her parents.”
“Yes, we won’t let her get away with this, darling,” Courtney says. “We’ll sort this out, we promise. And she won’t bully you again.”
Gwen smiles and squeezes her hand again. She gives Courtney a kiss, glad that, for the first time in ages, they’ve finally agreed on something to do with parenting. And they did it with a compromise. Which, she supposes, they should probably do more often.