Peer Pressure

My friend Melissa and I had an interesting conversation yesterday about peer pressure. She commented that we use peer pressure all the time on our little ones.

"Don't you want to wear big boy underwear like______?"

"Caleb eats green beans. Can you eat green beans, too?"

And in our minds we TOTALLY want our kids to be like everyone else. In my instance, I think, "Why can't Luke just play in the water at the beach like everyone else?" "Why can't Luke like the actual bounce house at the bounce house gym instead of just the fans?" and such comments.

We discussed positive peer pressure, and that we DO want our kids to copy good behaviors.

But those teenager years will start and, while we have conditioned our kids to want to be like everyone else, we suddenly don't want them to think that way anymore. Instead we want them to stand apart and be strong-- to NOT drink and NOT have sex and NOT drive crazy and NOT have weird hair, etc.

AND to choose the good things for the right reason-- not just because everyone else is doing it (on the slight chance that every other teenager is living the way we want our kid to live.)

So while this conversation didn't directly have to do with potty training per se, it made me feel a lot better about Luke's not being potty trained yet. He doesn't have to be like everyone else. And I'm going to shut up about wearing the big boy underwear like Caleb. Luke will wear them when he's ready.