Tales from the Trenches: Kindergarten Peer Pressure

When I was driving K- home this evening, we had the following discussion:

"Mommy, Z- broke up all of her crayons today."

"Why?"

"Well, I don't know. She told me that I needed to break up all of my crayons or she wouldn't be my friend anymore."

"So, what'd you do?"

"I broke up all of my crayons."

"Why?"

"Because she said that she wouldn't be my friend if I didn't."

"K-, you knew that was a bad choice, right?"

"Yes, Mommy."

"Then why did you do something so dumb?!"

"I'm so sorry."

So I told her that because she made a bad choice, listened to a friend even though she knew what she was asked to do was wrong, she needed to do extra jobs to earn money to go out and purchase another box of crayons with her own money.

"But mommy, I can use them still."

"They are all broken up."

"I can get some crayons out of my drawer basket at home! That's a good idea!"

"K-, the broken crayons still work. Yes, there are a bunch of crayons in the basket in your desk drawer at home. That's not the point. The point is that you made a bad decision to listen to a friend even though you knew that you shouldn't."

Another part of her punishment was having to discuss her transgression with her dad. We sat her down between us, explained that she needs to make the right choice. She asked us if we forgive her. "Absolutely. K-, you have Jesus in your heart. You need to listen to what your heart tells you."

"So if my brea*sts hurt, then I know that is Jesus telling me that it is wrong!"

(Insert a smirk on both of our parts.)

"Yes baby. That'll tell you if something is right or wrong."

This evening, I was discussing the matter with my mother. She gasped when she found out that K- had broken up all of her crayons. You see, K- is not a destructive child. She's not been one to color on walls, break up toys or destroy things. When she said that she broke up her crayons, it surprised me, too. Mom told me that she didn't blame us for making the decision to have K- replace the crayons with money that she earns. She agreed that we need to make an impression on K- about peer pressure.

Do we have crayons? Yes. Do I have brand new boxes to easily replace the broken ones with? Yes. Will that teach K- a lesson? No. Crayons are only the beginning. Hopefully, crayons will be a peer pressure reminder though. I believe that they will be a forever symbol in K-'s life of remembering to lean on Christ.

Smiles in my day:
- K-'s honesty about what happened today. The child has a guilt complex a mile long. She'll tell on herself about everything.
- An internet connection that seems to be working this evening. It's in fits and starts, though.
- Reading through the Farmer's Almanac. What interesting information. I admit that I've never read through an almanac before. I'm most surprised by their claim of 80% accuracy with the weather. We keep the almanac in the drawer at work and I read the next month's weather prediction aloud. February was pretty accurate. If they are accurate about March, it is going to continue to be wintry with a few more snow storms coming our way.
- K- eating everything in her lunch, regardless of whether the children say, "Ewww!" to the contents. (Blueberries.) I had to get her past not eating things just because one of her table mates didn't like whatever the food was.

Have a wonderful day!