There's a comeback for you!

On the way to daycare today, Hope was telling me how one of the boys had been teasing her and saying she was a boy. It was upsetting her, so one of her friends came to the rescue and told the boys she was indeed a girl. Oh, the issues of 4-year-olds! I was telling Hope things she could do if she were ever in a situation like that again. She could say "Stop saying that please", say "I don't want to play with you if you aren't going to be nice" and go play somewhere else, and a few other suggestions. She was very concerned that she wouldn't remember those words. I told her she could use whatever words she wanted, but she had to be nice and not say mean things back. So she told me, "I know what I'll tell him. I'll tell him he'd better be nice to me or else Santa won't bring him any presents!"