Scope of Influence

I knew sending my kids off to school (if kindergarten and preschool qualifies as “sending them off”) would expose them to many other personalities, opinions, ideas and behavioral choices. I’m cool with that. In fact, I encourage it. It’s my job to guide them and to teach them to make the right choices even after what they are exposed to in the big scary world.

So far things are going smoothly in the public school system. Other than a few quirks that Domino has picked up (a new “Vanna hands” thing when displaying or demonstrating something, and a frequent use of the word "whatever") the thing that really chaps my hide is that he will no longer allow me to say “envelope” (EN-velope) and will continue to correct me until I say “envelope” (AHN-velope). That’s the way his teacher says it and by golly "toe-may-toe/toe-mah-toe" there’s no discussion about it as far as he’s concerned. You’d be amazed how many times the word envelope is used in our house, especially since all school paperwork is transported to and fro in “the Wednesday AHN-velope”…

What I have really found interesting this school year are the changes I have seen in another little girl in the classroom next door. At the beginning of the school year I nicknamed the girl “Emo” – a reference to pouty wanna be punk rock teens of today.

Emo always seemed glum and not interested in socializing. She has parents who are different than most. Mom wears black exclusively and jewelry with skulls and snakes and such. Dad is an odd fellow, wears very random 80’s clothing, like checkerboard pants, and wears a knit yarmulke of sorts. He looks like he should be outside smoking clove cigarettes and playing hacky sack. At the beginning of the school year, Emo was dressed in very cute, albeit very “emo” outfits. Little plaid skirts with large safety pins with black tights and black boots, punk rock t-shirts, and dog collar looking jewelry. Even her little lunch pail was emo – a black Hello Kitty “Badtz-Maru” tin box. Not your every day Target finds.

Domino has been talking more and more about Emo lately. He’s been sitting next to her at lunch and playing with her at recess. I realized today that Emo is softening and smiling! I don’t know if it’s the increased influence of the other kids at school, or a reduced influence at home. It started off small, a pink sweater a month or so ago – and now she’s really transformed. Today she was wearing purple pants, a pink and white flowered shirt, a glittery butterfly clip in her hair, Dora the Explorer tennis shoes and she now carries a pink Hello Kitty vinyl lunch bag.

I wonder if her parents shudder in the aisles of Target when letting her pick stuff out the way I do each time Domino corrects me to say AHN-vel-ope.