The Little Fayoumis still hadn't taken in the ziplock bags. I went over to him and pointed out that these were for him to take to school and give to his teacher. Finally, the truest motivation came out: no one else was bringing any in!

So that was a situation that took careful handling. I rarely had too much trouble doing good things that my peers were not doing; my problem was wanting to do fun things my peers were doing even if it was bad. I did not want to force the issue, because social issues are delicate and so is his self-esteem. I want him to do as told, but also have a chance to do so on his own, not because I forced him to against his social instincts. I do not want to put anything in place now that will hamper him later.

I told the Little Fayoumis that it was optional to bring those in, which meant that we didn't have to, but if we did, it would be really, really nice. So if none of the other kids brought them in, he would be the only one being really really nice.

As I was marshalling my arguments for the second round, the Little Fayoumis picked up the box and stuffed it in his backpack.

So. Heh. That was that, then.

After a bit, I sat down with him and told him that when the other kids were doing something and that made him want to do it, or the other kids were not doing it and that made him not want to do it, there was a name for that, and that was peer pressure. Sometimes it's hard dealing with peer pressure...

I like to give him words and other mental tools to deal with life. Later, I'll go into the positive uses of peer pressure, maybe tonight, but it's enough that he knows the name now.