Her 9-Year-Old Daughter Was Bullied By A Group Of Girls At School For Having A Knock-Off Version Of The Viral Stanley Cup
When you were in school growing up, did you ever feel left out or made fun of because you didn’t have the same name-brand clothing item or accessory as everyone else?
For instance, when I was in middle school, around 90% of the female population had bright-colored Vera Bradley tote bags to carry their books in.
However, I had an ordinary floral tote bag because my parents didn’t think I needed the expensive designer one. Honestly, they were right.
Was I bullied for not having a Vera Bradley tote bag? No, but I did get weird looks occasionally, which was enough to make me insecure about my apparel choices.
One woman recently took to TikTok to explain why she decided to bite the bullet and get her 9-year-old daughter a Stanley tumbler after a bunch of girls in her grade teased her for using a knock-off version.
Dayna Motycka (@dayna_motycka), a mom and lifestyle content creator on TikTok, starts her video by showing her followers the cute off-brand Stanley water tumbler she and her husband got their 9-year-old daughter for Christmas. It’s a bit smaller than a Stanley but a similar shape with a hot pink handle, straw, and leopard print pattern.
Dayna explained that the cup was $9.98 and came from Walmart, and her daughter thought it was cute when she opened it.
Not long after returning to school from holiday break, her daughter came home upset. Her daughter told her that a group of 10 girls in her grade got Stanley tumblers for Christmas.
“They made sure to let her know that this is not a real Stanley [and] that this is fake and it’s not as cool,” says Dayna while holding her daughter’s cup.
Prostock-studio – stock.adobe.com – illustrative purposes only, not the actual people
“She comes home, upset, [and] she asks if she can have a real Stanley. Do I think that a nine-year-old needs a Stanley? No.”
Dayna then explains that because she wanted to keep her daughter from getting made fun of, she went ahead and got her a real Stanley tumbler that was $35 at her local store.
Although she didn’t think her daughter needed one, she could afford it and wanted to avoid her feeling bad at school.
Some parents may disagree with Dayna’s actions, thinking she should’ve made her daughter “tough it out” and accept the situation. Dayna explains that instead of judging her for helping her daughter fit in, people should reflect on preventing this kind of bullying instead.
“This doesn’t start with the kids,” says Dayna.
“This starts with parents [and] moms. What are we teaching our kids? You better believe that if our nine-year-old daughter came home and we found out that she made fun of another girl at school for not having a named brand [of] something…we would be calling the family, we would be making her write a note to apologize, [and] we would make her apologize in person because that’s not what we do in this household.”
Dayna says that while she and her husband want to teach their daughter that they need to earn nice things through hard work, they also don’t want to see her get bullied and left out because she was picked on by kids who weren’t taught the same thing.
Dayna’s reasoning also stems back to her childhood, as she remembers the relief of finally having something the other girls at her school had.
“We have got to teach our kids to not make other kids feel inferior for not having the things they have,” says Dayna at the end of her video.
Do you agree with Dayna’s sentiments?
@dayna_motycka I in fact did not keep it short and sweet ????? apparently needed to get this off my chest! ???? #stanleycups #valentinestanley #targetstanley #parentsteachingkids #parentingtips101
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