Comebacks

Having just received a nice report on how helpful Tobey was in church nursery, leave it to paranoid mommy to fast forward 5 years and wonder if he's going to be teased as a teacher's pet or goodie two shoes. In a recent email exchange with Z and Angel, they say that they can really see bad behavior in preschool and that there are not-so-nice kids as early as 1st grade.

In my head I keep thinking of ways I could comfort and arm Tobey with comebacks to the mean kids who might tease him for good behavior. I mean, isn't it strategically wise to align yourself with the teacher so that you might get a break in case you do get into trouble later? (As if that's going to be understood by a 1st grader.) Or maybe there's some other way that I can instill confidence in my kids to choose to do the right thing and not be affected by the teasings of the bad kids. My mom said I was always good at that as a kid. But I can't say that I didn't have emotions if someone did tease me, even if I didn't care about that person. I remember spats with Wayne Hoffman on the elementary school soccer field that would make me so mad. I guess it's a part of growing up that can't be avoided.