September 20, 2005 - Tuesday
Last night at dinner Harry said something about how ants taste good, implying, then confirming, that he had actually eaten ants. He said he had done it because two of his "friends," Owen and Joe (the best player on Harry's T-ball team last spring), did it and said they tasted good, or something like that. Both of those boys are a year older than Harry and Joe, at least, is someone I know Harry aspires to have as a friend.

This morning I had a little chat with Harry about peer pressure, how eating ants wasn't such a good idea, and how it sounded like his "friends" were trying to get him to do things that we're so smart.
"Ants crawl around on the ground and eat things that are rotten that we wouldn't want to eat? Do you really think it's a good idea to eat them?"
"No, I only ate one ant."
"Just one?"
"Yeah."
"OK, I guess I understand, Harry. You were trying to do want your friends were doing. All right, you ate an ant. That's probably not going to hurt you. And I suppose if you think it really might help your friends think you're cool then I guess that's your decision to make. But, you know, you probably have to wonder about kids who say they're your friend and then try to get you to do things like eating ants. Know what I mean?"
"Yeah."
" I suppose this sort of thing is going to happen sometimes and maybe, like eating the ant, you'll decide that maybe you really do just want to go along with the joke. But here's the thing, Harry. When you do that make sure that's it's your brain doing the thinking about it and that you're being smart about it." I went on to talk about what peer pressure is and how the result of peer pressure is an emotional response, like getting scared about something or being nervous.

Luckily for my purposes, Joe has become known between Harry and me as someone who often says things that simply aren't true. Harry, mommy, and I have actually researched claims Joe has made about spiders, daddy-long-legs, weather, various poisons, sports facts, and more and proven them to be simply wrong. Joe, however, is older than Harry, seems cool, and talks with authority and it's taken a little bit of work to get Harry to really buy into the idea that Joe plays loose, intentionally or not, with facts. I think he does get it now and has started to stand up for himself and what he knows to be true a little more when Joe talks.


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