I imagine they decided by majority rule. 
Early and often.
This brings back memories of Julie York in high school. I walked past her house on the way to and from school and eventually we walked together. I liked her, she liked me, but that was all it could ever be because she was a Jehovah’s Witness and her parents forbade her from socializing with non JW’s.
I gave her a birthday card and I remember her thanking me for it but asking me to keep it because if her parents saw it she would be in big trouble.
Feh.
I’m sorry for your daughters loss of a friend. This may well be a valuable lesson your child will remember for years to come on how not to be a bigot, racist, etc.
This is quite… sucky. About the only good thing it does is give you the opportunity to talk about bigotry and bias with your daughter, and to talk about how things that seem like “concepts” hurt real people in real life. And how stupid and arbitrary they are.
I remember at the age of 8, my father asked me if I knew what prejudice was. I said, yes, it’s when people don’t like black people or Jews. He went on to tell me that some people wouldn’t like me because I was Catholic. And I remember thinking, “Well, that’s stupid! I didn’t make myself Catholic, and what does that have to do with anything, anyway?”
Later as a teenager, I had to deal with anti-Catholic prejudice. I came to realize that my very best friends in junior high would never be allowed to hang out with me if their parents found out I was Catholic. And later still, had to deal with a girl I thought was a good friend telling me, in all seriousness, that Catholics had horns growing under their hair! And, fer crissakes, she was a LUTHERAN!
Nah, all good Catholics know it’s a sin to get horny. 
Well learn something new every day. I hadn’t any idea some Mormons kept themselves away like that. There are very few Mormons in my neck of the woods, and the one family I knew had bigger issues than playmates.
Give your kidlet a hug, simple explanation, and maybe schedule some extra play sessions with her other friends for a while. Not to say you should sweep it under the rug, but let’s hope she’ll have another close friend in no time.
Mormons in general don’t keep to themselves. Apparently, this woman does like to keep her world as narrow and limited as possible. That doesn’t mean the entire religion is full of anti-social pricks.
I wasn’t thinking when I made that last post :-/.
Sorry.
You know what, yeah, apologize for the sake of reducing social unpleasantness, sure. But don’t let people push you around, either.
“Mental problem” isn’t some specific medical or psychological classification. If someone has SCREWY ideas, feel free to call it a mental problem. It’s in their heads, after all.
If I had to worry about offending someone (or someone who knows someone or is related to someone) who has some form of mental illness or disorder, I’d have to cut all of the following out of my vocabulary: nuts, crazy, psycho, moron, idiot, imbecile, insane, etc. And I get a lot of use out of these, especially since I live in the Third World.
GorillaMan, I don’t mean to be offensive or trollish, but your response of “shut the f*ck up” is offensive to me. This message board, in my experience, is full of caring, understanding people, for the most part, and I think a little restraingçt and respect is not an unreasonable expectation, especially for a message that was clearly not meant to be negative or hurtful.
You really hit the nail on the head. Of all the kids in our neighborhood, we like them each as individuals. In fact, I’m not sure I could tell you the religion of any one of them specifically. “Suzi” is new to our neighborhood, and I’m not sure if any other Mormons live near us, but I’m sure she’ll be hurt when the list of potential playmates start dropping one by one on discovery of their religions too. It just makes me so sad for the little girl.
Incidently, this isn’t the only time Mormonism has raised it’s ugly head around here. One other time our girls played with Mormon friends, invited them to b-days, bowling parties, etc. but when it came around to the Mormon child’s b-days one of them said to my older daughter “I wish I could invite you too but my mom only lets me invite people that go to our church.” I didn’t know at the time and found out later they were Mormon. Quite exasperating to say the least.
My cousin knows a guy who’s parents are exactly the same. His father tells him “Be friendly. Not friends.”
When he caught his son walking to school with my cousin he beat him with a belt when he got home. :mad: