Years ago, when Elise started at her new daycare (the one she is in still), I remember being shocked when the teacher told me that all of the kids slept on mats on the floor (at her old daycare all the kids slept in cribs, which is obviously what she was used to at home). There was NO WAY our extremely active then 14 month old was going to sleep on the floor. On a mat. With a million other kids around. Not gonna happen. The teacher assured me it wasn't going to be a problem. And she was right - Elise had no trouble at all napping at school. We similarly thought that there was no way that our active baby was going to sit still for circle time either. She couldn't even sit still for more than 30 seconds even when something REALLY interesting was happening! And yet, after a day or two, she had no trouble being a part of circle time. How is that even possible? What's your secret, I asked the teacher. "The other kids are doing it" she told me. It's actually a little bit terrifying how early peer influence begins to impact your child's choices and behavior. And it appears that it only becomes more apparent as time goes by.
Our daycare offers swim lessons for the Pre-School kids each summer (they take the kids to the local Y). We have known about this for a long time so we have been talking to Elise about it for a few months to figure out if it was something she'd want to do. She has not had much pool exposure in her life - she's gone to the pool a handful of times at her Grandparents house, a few times on our annual beach vacation and twice here with her friend whose family spends much of the summer at the pool. She has gotten much more comfortable in the water in the past year but she still has serious apprehensions. And she still doesn't like getting water in her face - even in the bathtub. So when we began asking her if she wanted to take part of the swim lessons, she always answered a resounding NO. After talking her though it a few times over a few months, the answer continued to be NO. So, we dropped it. She didn't want to do it - and it was completely fine with us. She could do it next summer if she wanted to, or should could just not be a pool person and not do it at all. That's fine too.
But a few days before swim class started, Elise came home from school declaring that she really wanted to take swim lessons now. We asked, very skeptically, what was making her change her mind and she gave vague "I just want to" and "I feel like it now" answers, but what it came down to was that her friends, who were all participating, were talking about it and she didn't want to be left out. And we can't believe that we're dealing with peer pressure issues at age 3!! Luckily, it has turned out for the best (so far), as she absolutely loves swim class and is turning more and more into a little water baby.
We have also come to realize that peer influence isn't just about behavior - it's also about fashion. As a person who has zero interest in fashion (and zero sense of fashion), I have no idea where my three year old has picked up her love for it. Practically since she could talk she has been 
informing me about which sweater looks best with which skirt, constantly telling me that things don't match, and recently she actually said "those pants are so last year" when I tried to get her to put on some pink corduroys (are cords out of style again? How could my thee year old possibly know this? I can't keep up). Apparently fashion trends are also running rampant in Pre-K. A few weeks ago I noticed that she was putting the velcro strips on her shoes in a "criss-cross" instead of straight across. I asked why she had it like that and she informed me that "that's how you wear it." The next day when I picked her up from school, I started paying close attention to how the other kids in her class were wearing their shoes. Sure enough, criss-cross style is all the rage in Pre-K! And on a final note, last week she asked me and Marty if she could have a bathing suit that showed her tummy like some of the other girls in her swim class. She's already wanting to wear a bikini?! What is happening!?
If this is what it's like when she is three, we are in sooo much trouble when she becomes a teenager...
informing me about which sweater looks best with which skirt, constantly telling me that things don't match, and recently she actually said "those pants are so last year" when I tried to get her to put on some pink corduroys (are cords out of style again? How could my thee year old possibly know this? I can't keep up). Apparently fashion trends are also running rampant in Pre-K. A few weeks ago I noticed that she was putting the velcro strips on her shoes in a "criss-cross" instead of straight across. I asked why she had it like that and she informed me that "that's how you wear it." The next day when I picked her up from school, I started paying close attention to how the other kids in her class were wearing their shoes. Sure enough, criss-cross style is all the rage in Pre-K! And on a final note, last week she asked me and Marty if she could have a bathing suit that showed her tummy like some of the other girls in her swim class. She's already wanting to wear a bikini?! What is happening!?If this is what it's like when she is three, we are in sooo much trouble when she becomes a teenager...
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