Pressure Test

I am very proud of my daughter.  Even before her lice incident earlier this year, we had warned Jada not to share hair items with friends, like combs or barrettes.  Well, sure enough, at the Y this week, friends were passing around a headband, and goading Jada into joining in their play.  She told me she said no, and when I asked her if it made her feel left out, she replied that she didn't feel bad about not joining in because she didn't really want to put the headband on. 

This overbearing father thought immediately to a future scenario, in which what was getting passed around wasn't a headband but a cigarette or a joint or a bottle of beer.  I told her happy I was that she was able to withstand her friends' pressure, and that in the future there might be people that try to get her to do far worse things than put a shared headband on, and that she should say no and be happy about it because she wouldn't really want to do those things. 

Who knows what sorts of peer pressure she'll face, and how she'll react to it.  All I know is that she had an early test, and passed it with flying colors, for which I'm thankful.