u/Entire-Drink-7349

So it's currently mating season where I live and hundreds of non-poisonous kissing bugs are migrating around the school that I work at. (You know, the orange and black winged bugs that attach their abdomens to each other? That kind!)

I'm an Aftercare counselor at an elementary school, and I love my job! However, today there was an instance where a few of the girls were screaming their heads off at the bugs as if they were grenades. Throughout the day, I calmly informed them that they are not poisonous, venomous, or dangerous in any way, shape, or form.

And then later at recess, I saw them screaming and one of them started stomping on one after another after another after another. She even started beating one ruthlessly with a blunt object. As an animal lover I hated seeing that. I firmly scolded, "[Her name], stop doing that! They're Not Dangerous!" And she snapped at me and screamed, "I DON'T CARE THEY'RE ICKY!!!" I then yelled at her to knock it off and she eventually did.

On the walk back to the cafeteria, she saw another one and her friend started flailing as if she was having a seizure.

I asked her if she would have done the same thing to a kitten or a squirrel with one eye or a because she thought it looked gross. She shrugged.

I asked her how she would feel if she was walking down the street, and this stranger comes out of nowhere decided he wanted to murder her because He thought she looked weird. She couldn't give me an answer.

She's not a horrible kid, but that really got under my skin. I know that I'm going to get comments telling me to chill out and that they're just bugs, and that they only have 4 days to live anyway, just wanted to let some thoughts out.

My mom and I made Mother's Day plans to go to church at 9:30 in the morning and then go to Denny's, but I overslept past my alarm due to my new medication for nausea. I woke up at 10:51 and now she's pissed. And when she's pissed at me, she gives me short, snarky responses like:

"What." "Yeah uh-huh" "Cool, bye."

And the thing is, she was already steaming pissed about something I did yesterday. (I forgot to log into my work email for almost a week...)

I know I did this to myself but what should I do to apologize or make it up to her? She's really mad and I hate that I did this...

UPDATE:

The first comment I got gave me an idea to go and get her flowers, so I left my room and put on my shoes and grabbed my keys and wallet. My mom asked me where I thought I was going, and I instinctively said "...Nowhere!", and my God, she DID NOT like that answer. She had a huge crash out. Understandable.

I'm 24 and I work as an aftercare counselor. I LOVE my job, put something happened today that really got under my skin.

A few of the girls started to beef with two boys, and I tried to deescalate the situation and a girl yelled to me: "WELL YOU SUCK AT SINGING SO SHUT YOUR MOUTH" And her friends just laughed.

I have always been self-conscious about my singing voice since I was a child and that REALLY hurt.

(For reference, a few months prior, some kids were doing karaoke, and I asked if it was okay if I could sing Exit Music by Radiohead, despite how terrified I was to sing in front of people. I had a very mean Chorus teacher when I was in 6th grade who made me question my values a LOT. I guess a piece of that slipped today.)

The moment she yelled that I just said "....Wow." and just sat there in silence feeling embarrassed for like 5 minutes before finally texting my supervisor. Should I have reacted differently?

I'm not strict at all. I'm very laid back. I'm patient. I never raise my voice unless it's just loud in the cafeteria so others can hear me. I don't tolerate bad behavior, but I'm very controlled about it. I always remind my class to keep their head up and remind them that no one is worse or better than them. If I'm not ABSOLUTELY, PRECISELY, TRULY sure I should write a referral, I DON'T write one.

Anyway, back to the topic at hand. All of her friends back at the cafeteria were PISSED at me for writing her a referral. This happens almost every time someone in their friend group gets in trouble. One of them does something, I enforce boundaries, they get mad at me. Sometimes they get punishments, but that just makes them more mad than think "Hey, I've done something wrong, I need to stop it"

I told my very nice supervisor that I didn't want to go back to cafeteria cuz I'm really shaken by what happened, and she said she understands and I can leave early. They said that it's not personal and that those girls are rude to everybody. All of my colleagues there are VERY nice, I love them like family!

I called my mom to let it out and she just SCREAMED at me letting a 5th grader walk all over my emotions like this and hung up. I think she might be right.

I get it. I'm a grown man, I grew up abused and helpless, and a personal attack like that just really hurt my feelings. I want to cry but I shouldn't because that was just a kid who said that stuff.

I know I need to grow a pair but do I just let it go? I know she's not going to apologize.