Frenemies??

 

While at the mall play place today, I found myself anxious about how Nash would interact with the other kids.  I never thought I would be concerned with whether or not my infant would be accepted or rejected by other kids...I always thought that came later on when he was in middle school or so.

Let me go back a bit.  About two months ago, we took Nash to the play place and it was packed!  There were tons of kiddos running around, playing hide-and-go seek (seriously, where do they hide??), and Nash was uber excited to jump right in and play.  One little boy - maybe he was like 4 - ran over to this little shelf area and squeezed himself inside.  Well, Nash saw him climb in there and raced crawled over to him to say hi.  Right then, the little boy put out his hand and said, "Don't, Baby!"  

I was speechless...my sweet angel had just been rejected by someone.  And not just anyone...but someone he was trying to play with.  I scooped him up immediately and said, "Come on, sweetheart, let's go play over here."  Inside, I was fuming.  How dare that little boy!  Doesn't he know he has his whole life to be a friend snob?!?!  

The worst part is that I still think about that day...and I get nervous that it will happen again.  And I'm dreading the day it hurts him so bad he cries.  Maybe it won't happen...maybe it will.  As his Mama, that sucks.  So today I felt that worry bubble up again.

This time there weren't a ton of kiddos, but most of them were just a bit older than him, so he was loving it.  He found this one little girl - who was likely 3 - and he just followed her around.  At one point, he cornered her by the spaceship and I felt a lump form in my throat.  I thought for sure she was going to turn around and tell him to play with someone his own age...  But she didn't.  She just kind of hung out there...letting him smile at her and babble.

So crisis averted this time...now I just have 99 years of motherly anxiety left.

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