Friendship

Last year in second grade, Jack made himself a really nice friend named J. J is a very polite boy, and his parents seem to be understanding about Jack, so when there was first talk of "play dates", I was happy that finally Jack had someone who truly seemed to like him. J called many times over the school year to come over, sometimes without the knowledge of his mother. He never seemed to get upset when all Jack wanted to do was look at his (J's) Nintendo DS. They would sit side by side on the couch and play their DS games together. It was really great.

Jack mentioned a few other friends he often played with at school, one of which he met up with frequently at the pool during summer vacation. I wasn't too sure about "B", though. He's sort of annoying, and always calls me "Jack's mom", as in "Hi, Jack's mom!". I think he's one of those kids who is odd in his own way, and looking for a good friend. (Things that make me feel for him, automatically). It doesn't help that his mother never sends him to school in clothes that fit right, and 9 times out of 10, he's pulling his pants up when you look at him (they're so tight that his large-ish body squeezes right out of them). My last real interaction with B was when he came up to Jack before school to explain what the game Assassin's Creed was all about. This pissed me off because I don't let my kids play M-rated games, and Jack is obsessed with wanting to do whatever his friends are doing (or at the very least, what he thinks they're doing).

Another kid, "T", seems nice, but I'm not sure what I really think of him. He says hi to Jack, waves to me, plays with Jack at school- I don't recall many problems popping up over the years between the two of them. However, I get the sense that he's nice to Jack just to be polite, and not so much because he wants to be his friend. Another boy, "C", is somebody Jack talks about all the time as well. However, the things that I hear about him make it sound like he's allowed to do whatever he wants. My impression is that he's a bad influence on my son.

This September, when Jack wanted to have a party, he attempted to give out invitations before school so that he wouldn't get in trouble for giving them out in class. We mailed an invite to J, because J isn't in his class this year. Jack handed an invite to B, who seemed interested.. but for whatever reason, T didn't want to take one. In fact when Jack told him he was inviting him to his party, T just said "ok" and that was it. As for C, well, the morning we were giving out invites, C was nowhere to be found. We did have a phone number for C, but no matter how many times Jack called, nobody answered, and nobody returned our messages, and C never said a word about it in school.

The rest of Jack's invites were taken away by the teacher, and Jack got in trouble for having them at school. Thus, these were the only people invited. (I was not interested in having everyone in the class come over, especially when I knew that Jack wouldn't want a few particular classmates there).

Nobody RSVP'd for this party. I wasn't going to throw a party, but Jack insisted. He made all of the invites himself, and was pretty adamant about when he was going to have it. I couldn't help but humor him this time around, as he's never had a party before with anyone other than family. At the time of said party, the only kid to show up was J. He was able to stay for 3 whole hours, and I'd like to think that the two boys had a nice time, eating pizza and hanging out. (I was hurt for Jack that nobody else bothered to call or show up, but happy that he has at least one true friend who did).

Fast forward to December, just a few days before Christmas. Another boy named "W" that Jack has made friends with this year, invited him to his party. I don't know how many other classmates were invited, aside from a boy named "A". I don't care for A, either, and lately Jack and A have been getting on each others nerves. As it turns out, Jack is the only classmate who showed up to his party. He did have a ton of family members and friends from church, but as for school friends, Jack was it. He was there for 3 hours, and had a really good time. :)