Tuesday, September 25, 2007

Do I Give Into Peer Pressure?

Our library has two programs this year. One is a 3 - 4 year old story time, where the kids go into the story room and listen to stories by themselves. The second is 2 - 3 year old mom and tots time. I think they read mostly the same books, but the moms are there to monitor / corall their children. This last week I brought Andrew to the 3 - 4 group and went in with him, and he seemed pretty happy. I think by next week I could even leave him there and he would enjoy himself. This would be a nice little step towards independence for him, and it is what I was planning to do this fall.

The problem is this: all my friends have younger 2ish year old children. They have all decided to go to the Toddler Time morning together instead of getting together for coffee on Tuesday mornings. So by taking Andrew to the older group on Thursday mornings, which he is just on the edge of being old enough for (since he turned three last month) I lose my social time with my friends. Plus they are thinking of having another day as a coffee day, and if they choose Thursday I will be totally out of the loop.

So the question is: Do I stick with my initial decision that Andrew can probably handle the seperation and would enjoy the slightly older group (since he mostly hangs out with kids almost a full year younger than himself), and get some time by myself in the library or should I go with the borg and attend the toddler time storytime so that I get to hang out with my friends? You all know that my natural instinct is to go to the Thursday one just to be a rebel. But I really desperately need friends around here and I don't want to lose touch with all my friends just because I'm being obstinate. Opinions, thoughts, comments? What would you do?

1 comment:

Jen said...

I think you should listen to what your gut says is best for your child. Your friends should respect you for that, I hope!