Today was Tommy’s first day of preschool. This school, like many others, has a requirement that for the first two days, the child attends only until noon, with a parent in attendance. I went with him today, and Toby will be going tomorrow.

It certainly was interesting… and hectic. There were a little more than 20 kids in his class today; by the end of the month, there’ll be 30. Up to this point he’s been attending a private home childcare service, with only a couple of other kids at any given time. He seemed fine with all the kids there, though he had a tendency to wander off by himself. Several times he tried to leave the classroom to go play on one of the outside playgrounds.

Now, in regards to my title: I noticed there were a few boys that were especially rough-and-tumble. One of them in particular was apparently a bit violent, and the teacher threatened to call his father if he kept up his behavior. The whole time I was there I was secretly praying to myself that he would keep far, far away from those boys and instead play with the nicer, more gentle boys and girls.

Naturally, one of the boys from that group decided he liked Tommy. Shortly before lunchtime, while they were out on the playground, that boy decides to engage Tommy in play. Up until this point in time, Tommy had been playing with all the other various children, but never more than a few moments at a time. At lunchtime, this boy sat down next to him and wanted to be near him until it was time for us to leave.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m glad he has a friend. And to be fair, this boy seems more like a follower than one inciting aggressive play. He seemed to be fairly gentle the entire time he played with Tommy. I just worry that he’ll bring Tommy into the other group, and that Tommy will pick up some of their aggression. (I’ve seen this already from his other childcare situation, where he started pushing after being around a rowdier boy, who liked to push, headbutt, tackle, etc.)

I know it sounds silly, but I wonder: Is it too early to worry about a preschooler falling into the wrong crowd?

PS: Since some people apparently CAN’T TELL, the whole “is he falling into the wrong crowd” thing was meant to be a JOKE. :P While, yes, I would prefer if he stayed away from the rougher kids (I like that he’s more gentle), I’m not sitting here worrying about his future as a drug addict criminal or anything. Sheeeesh.