Five year old and bullying at the playground

My five-and-a-half year old what is likely her first serious introduction to the standard cruelty that kids dish out on the playground -- she was happily pretending to run an ice cream shop when two kids a few years older than her stepped in and essentially forced her out, began to act as ice cream vendors themselves and then refused to play with her while loudly mocking that they were still playing the game she so badly wanted to. For a while my daughter fought back and eventually came over to me with red eyes to get a drink of water. I told her she shouldn't put up with that and that if people were playing mean that she shouldn't keep playing with them. For whatever reason she ran right back to the same spot on the playground, struggled to force herself back into the play group, and eventually resigned herself to sitting opposite a wall of the other girls while trying her hardest to not cry. I stepped in, told the two girls they shouldn't be playing mean and that they should know better before saying it was time to go home.There was quite a bit of crying in the car and I explained that it isn't good to keep trying to play with people who are being mean and that she shouldn't put up with the teasing and to go play with kids who are friendly. Recovery was quick, she cheered up, and all was well.I'm curious, though, what others do when situations like this arise and what kind of things I could do to better help my daughter help herself so that she can handle these situations better. At her age I wasn't good dealing with those situations initially either, but of course as an adult I've lost all comprehension of what it is like to be a kid on the playground. via /r/Parenting http://ift.tt/2FfX4wV