The Positives of Peer Pressure?
My son does not care what anyone thinks about what he does or says. About six months ago he got sent to the assistant principal's office for talking in French class about the intricacies of making "meth." He did not speak about meth making en Francais and so everyone heard him and laughed--again not en Francais. He got sent to the principal for chattering in English about "inappropriate subjects". I guarantee that he can't spell "methamphetamine" but he saw a vid on how to make it, on YouTube I'm sure--and he just had to share. Had to.
When he was in grade school one day he wore one shoe each from two different pairs of shoes. He went off to school and thought nothing of it. I doubt any of his peers noticed but I did hear from one or two mothers--"um, did you know that M was wearing mis-matched shoes to school today. Did he mean to do that?". I probably said something like "I'm sure he did, he's so creative."--and never gave it another thought. I do remember asking him and I do remember him telling me 'oh, yeah I couldn't find the other matching shoe so I just wore another one." C'est la vie.
A few weeks ago I came up with what I thought was a semi-brilliant school morning strategy. Kid 2 is fascinated by cars and driving right now, so to relieve some of the daily frustration we feel waiting for Kid 1 to finish her teenage-girl morning beauty routine, I thought "I'll let him start the car and scrape the frost off the windows while she's futzing around." I told him not to put the car in gear. It went okay for a day or two.
Then came the morning when I wandered downstairs to find him standing in the foyer with an odd expression on his face, sort of panicked but optimistic at the same time. I said "what happened?" He replied "the backpack slipped." I was momentarily confused but it quickly dawned on me what had occurred. I looked out the front window and saw the car--its tail hanging out into the street. "Um, what happened to the car?", I asked. "Well, the backpack slipped and I fell off and my foot slipped off the brake." Come to find out he'd gotten the bright idea to sit on his backpack so that he could reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel. He'd put it in reverse and then his foot had slipped off the brake pedal. He then pushed the accelerator hard, thinking that the car would move forward. It didn't, of course. It moved backwards. Fortunately he found the brake pedal again fast, put it in 'park' and turned off the ignition.
I thought it was hilarious, mostly because he'd started his confession with "the backpack slipped." He promised not to drive the car anymore. He has kept his word hasn't done any driving since but he did tell the story to every kid in school that day. As to what they thought about his little adventure, he didn't care. He just thought it a funny story worth telling and re-telling. Who cares what anyone thought...
When he was in grade school one day he wore one shoe each from two different pairs of shoes. He went off to school and thought nothing of it. I doubt any of his peers noticed but I did hear from one or two mothers--"um, did you know that M was wearing mis-matched shoes to school today. Did he mean to do that?". I probably said something like "I'm sure he did, he's so creative."--and never gave it another thought. I do remember asking him and I do remember him telling me 'oh, yeah I couldn't find the other matching shoe so I just wore another one." C'est la vie.
A few weeks ago I came up with what I thought was a semi-brilliant school morning strategy. Kid 2 is fascinated by cars and driving right now, so to relieve some of the daily frustration we feel waiting for Kid 1 to finish her teenage-girl morning beauty routine, I thought "I'll let him start the car and scrape the frost off the windows while she's futzing around." I told him not to put the car in gear. It went okay for a day or two.
Then came the morning when I wandered downstairs to find him standing in the foyer with an odd expression on his face, sort of panicked but optimistic at the same time. I said "what happened?" He replied "the backpack slipped." I was momentarily confused but it quickly dawned on me what had occurred. I looked out the front window and saw the car--its tail hanging out into the street. "Um, what happened to the car?", I asked. "Well, the backpack slipped and I fell off and my foot slipped off the brake." Come to find out he'd gotten the bright idea to sit on his backpack so that he could reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel. He'd put it in reverse and then his foot had slipped off the brake pedal. He then pushed the accelerator hard, thinking that the car would move forward. It didn't, of course. It moved backwards. Fortunately he found the brake pedal again fast, put it in 'park' and turned off the ignition.
I thought it was hilarious, mostly because he'd started his confession with "the backpack slipped." He promised not to drive the car anymore. He has kept his word hasn't done any driving since but he did tell the story to every kid in school that day. As to what they thought about his little adventure, he didn't care. He just thought it a funny story worth telling and re-telling. Who cares what anyone thought...
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