The Bus

The dreaded bus. What is it? It is the big yellow monster that drives that down road that is trying to UNdo 5 years of my time, patience (mostly), and love! My worst fear is coming true...well, my 2nd worst fear. My Worst fear is that Noah will get picked on by older kids and somehow it will damage his self esteem or confidence. But my 2nd worst fear is that kids on the bus would pick on someone and Noah would join in or that they would teach Noah bad habits or rude sayings or whatever.

There is this boy who lives 2 doors over (which is really close in a townhome) and he and Noah have become friends. They are 2 years apart but 5 and 7 are very different. They actually played together last spring running back and forth in the backyard between our houses. The kid was away all summer visiting his dad who lives in another state so we didn't see him much. Well, this kid sits with Noah on the bus and today on the ride home I guess he told Noah that in order to be invited to his birthday party, Noah would have to tell the girl sitting across from them that Noah didn't like her..or any girls.

It must have been bothering him and he must have known it wasn't the right thing to do because Noah waited to tell me this until we were driving home from tennis practice at 7:30pm tonight. He told me that even though he DOES like girls (whew!) he just told her that so he could go to the birthday party (which i have a feeling he won't be invited to anyway). So of course, I asked Noah if he liked Audrey, Alice, Ella, and Madeline (his best girl pals) and of course he said yes...so from there we had a LONG talk about peer pressure and how that poor girl probably felt when Noah said that.

I am not ready for this! I am not ready for Noah to be peer pressured. I want to go back to preschool (probably way more than Noah does) and walk down that hallway where "peer pressure" was me telling all the kids that the 'silent game' really is the coolest game in the world. I am not ready for my little kid to be out there in the world where people are mean. Can I please go back to the world where i know EVERY ONE of the parents in Noah's class and actually WANT to hang out with each of them?? Please???????????