So Embarrassing!!

Today I took Little Boy and Little Girl to the library for an ice cream social. It was part of their summer reading club activities. I thought it would be a nice surprise for them, because with ice cream, how can you go wrong??

They were very excited about it, and when we got there, the library was swarming with kids--just tons of them, all waiting for ice cream. Of course, when you're talking about that many kids, you're bound to know at least one or two of them from a class or two. Well, I knew a few from Little Girl's preschool class, and a couple from her Kindergarten class.

I recognized the kids right away, since I'd both dropped off/picked up Little Girl from preschool for the whole year and also because I'd done a lot of volunteer work at the elementary school this past year and met a lot of the parents and their kids. So when I'd see a kid I knew (and therefore Little Girl knew), I'd say "Hey, isn't that a kid from your class?"

And Little Girl would say yes.

So I'd say "Why don't you go and say hello?"

To which, of course, Little Girl would say no.

Okayyyyyyyyyy.....

Maybe it was just that kid, for some reason. Who knows. Bad kindergarten blood or something. But each and every kid I saw that I knew she knew, I'd say the same thing. And each and every time, she'd say no. The more kids I saw and mentioned, the more unhappy she got with me, until her eyes were rolling around in her head with the displeasure of my asking.

So I laid off.

But when we got into the car, I figured I was safe. There was no one around, and maybe she'd tell me why she didn't want to talk to any of her friends. So I said "Hey, Little Girl, why didn't you want to say hello to any of your friends?"

And she turns to me and says "Because you're embarrassing".

Huh.

I've got to admit, I'm a bit stymied by this. First of all, because the kid who just said this wanted to wear a hand towel around her neck to this party, to pretend to be a superhero. It was only after MUCH debate and arguing that she agreed not to wear it when we went out. Is a handtowel cape a cool, normal thing, I guess?

Secondly, I dress normally. I look (pretty much) like other mothers. And I've got kids with me, it's not like I'm just some odd loner going to the party because I wanted ice cream for myself .

Thirdly, and maybe most prevalently, I would think, is that people don't like me so they don't talk to me. Well, no, let me rephrase that. Other mothers don't like me, so they don't talk to me. Because of that, I don't talk at these things. I just speak to my children, help them with whatever they need, and smile politely at the crowd most of the time. I do say hello to the other mothers, but they always run away as fast as possible. So really there is no way I'm embarrassing her by talking too much, or talking too loudly, or laughing at things, or anything like that.

Apparently, I'm embarrassing her by just being.

Hmmmmmm......

I didn't know that I should expect this at the age of 6. It's about oh.....6 years earlier than I expected. Oh well.

So, I am embarrassing. That's ok. Now I know. I will try to fade into the wall a little more from now on, I guess (though I'm not sure how much more I can possibly do that). And cool, normal Little Girl will be cool and normal.

And yes, she IS now wearing that hand towel. She put it on as soon as we got home.