She's Quite An Influence on My Son

I knew when Pierce started a daily Pre-K program that he would be under the influence of other kids more.  I figured he'd come home wanting to watch Star Wars and have light saber battles.  That he might start talking about wizards and magic and asking for a pet owl.  That there might be, at worst, fake shooting and (ungranted) requests for toy guns.  But the influence he fell under was completely unexpected.

The teachers assign the seating on the front of the bus for the younger kids, and Pierce's seat mate is a kindergartner named Jayden.  I've never met her, but Pierce is completely enamored.  Everyday he comes home with stories about Jayden.  It all started with her cell phone.  See, Jayden has a real pink cell phone (according to Pierce).  A pink slider cell phone.  She's 5.  And now all the sudden my son says he's sending me emails on his phone.  He's four.  He never even knew what an email was before!  Jayden doesn't let Pierce play with her real cell phone, but sometimes she brings her purple play cell phone and let's him play with that.

 

Image courtesy of google

 

Next thing I know, Pierce gets off the bus and announces, "Jayden shared her snack with me on the bus!".  I said, "I didn't think you were allowed to eat on the bus.  What did you have?"  Pierce is bouncing his backpack, totally hyped up, and says, "I had a tootsie roll!  And goldfish crackers!  And fruit snacks!  And string cheese!"  And my first thought was, has that string cheese been sitting in her backpack unrefrigerated all day long?  And my second thought was, guess you won't need to eat dinner.  So now that I'm up for worst mom of the year award, for not sending bus snacks for my child, I have to try to redeem myself by sending double snacks so that Pierce can share with Jayden.  Only I can't bring myself to pack things like tootsie rolls.  Indeed, I pack healthy snacks.  As you might imagine, this doesn't make Pierce the most popular kid on the bus.  And the day I sent blueberry grammy sammies, Jayden outright rejected them.  Yeah, not sending those again.

Then last week Pierce gets off the bus sporting the HUGEST Winnie the Pooh sticker I have ever seen.  It's so big it wraps all the way around his hand and up his arm.  Wow, that's a big sticker, I tell him.  "Mom, Jayden gave it to me!  And Winnie the Pooh is MY FAVORITE MOVIE EVER!!  Can we watch it today?  Please?!".  Seriously?  Winnie the Pooh?  And here I was worried about Star Wars battles in my house.  Boy was I ever wrong.  But by all means, bring on the Pooh.  That, I can handle.  As long as the Heffalumps don't get me first.

Image courtesy of google

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