where the cool go to school

Dear Parents of Elementary Schoolers,

Yesterday Drew dressed in a typical fancy outfit. He wore suit pants, a polo, and a suit vest. He loves to wear fancy suit clothes, and especially vests. I felt a little apprehensive about it, as he is very sensitive to what people say about him. It turns out, by allowing this expression, I sent him to the wolves. He won't tell me who said it or even what they said. I only know that for picture day today he  changed his mind from the polo/vest combo to something seemingly trendy. He looked adorable. But it made me sad that some twit made him feel uneasy about dressing is his favorite outfit.

I'm mad at the kid. But I'm more mad at you. I want to know at what point it became important to make your kid the "cool" kid in kindergarten. When did your self confidence become so low that you felt it was necessary to groom your kid for cool? I thought kindergarten was a time for fun and learning and making friends. I was under the impression that middle school was when we started to worry about fitting in.

Kids do not bully naturally. It is a learned behavior. My kids are not learning to bully in my home. We do not make fun of each other. We find other ways to laugh. We teach acceptance and allow our kids to be anyone they choose to be. My kids are told they can try whatever interests them. They can grow up to be anything they want. Kids learn to love themselves by watching us love them and from watching us love ourselves and our neighbor. 

Fellow parents, you need to take your ego down a notch. The goal in life is not to be the cool grown up. As you raise your kids you need to remember that confidence born from other people's opinion is false. Why don't we, for the rest of elementary school, allow our kids to be kids. Let's let them decide what to wear, what games to play and what friends to choose. They have their whole lives to decide who they are. Let's not confuse them early by forcing them to do what you have deemed the cool thing to do. 

Sincerely,
A fellow parent...who will kick your ass if you don't teach your kids some manners soon