Remember the kids at school who were so cool because they could flip their eyelids inside out? It was like the coming of age in the second grade. By third grade they were mesmerizing the rest of the class by shoving thumb tacks through their callouses. In the fourth grade, they were able to whistle by blowing on a piece of grass between their thumbs. I'm pretty sure those kids grew up to be movie stars. Somehow I missed the boat. Bad jeans...highwaters actually.
I thought I'd give my kids a leg up by teaching them the joke about "see" food. That was a mistake. I should have seen that coming. Ha. Ha. Ha. Please don't laugh, it will only encourage me.
Our kids don't have much hope in the cool department. Have I mentioned this before? Their dad had the nickname "Pineapple Head" in high school, and well, I was wearing Little House on the Prairie dresses up until the ninth grade. Luckily, I could run fast or I probably would have gotten beaten up. Actually, Lorena Bobbitt was a nickname I was given by classmates in middle school, maybe that did just as much to save me as it did to annoy me.
As we start considering sending our kids to school, the question of whether or not they will fit in and find good friends weighs on my mind. I want them to like school and I know the social aspect plays a large part of that. We have had more playdates recently, and I've felt some relief to see other kids with equally terrible dance moves, who also tell bad (as in not funny) jokes, and who struggle with getting dressed into appropriate clothing as much as our kids. No, it doesn't make it less of a problem, but there is some satisfaction in knowing they aren't alone in their struggles. And neither are we.
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