Kids imitating Entertainment

In the book and movie Diary of a Wimpy Kid, (which is a great movie – even if you don’t have any kids) someone drops a slice of cheese on the school playground. It doesn’t get touched for awhile which causes it to get moldy and disgusting. Finally, someone is forced to touch the cheese and thus contracts “The Cheese Touch.” Anyone hexed with ‘The Cheese Touch’ is ostracized and made an outcast until they touch someone else and pass it off. I think in the movie, it was given to a foreign exchange student who took it back to his own country. Regardless, it is paramount to have ‘The Cheese Touch’ removed from the school as soon as possible.


Now, I understand that kids are stupid. Also, that they like to emulate what they see in the movies. My Dad tells a great story about how after he and his buddies saw a movie about a guy getting tortured in the jungle, they talked the neighborhood nerd into volunteering to be tied up in the lot where they played. After spreading molasses on his belly, they sat back and waited for the ants to come. After several hours of this poor kid lying in the sun, it was time for dinner. They went home. (I’m not sure if they untied the victim before they left or not)

As my own father was the king of movie reenactments, I suppose the following story should then not have surprised me too much:

A few weeks ago my oldest daughter, Tali, one of the most goodie-two-shoes kids I know, somehow gets talked into leaving a piece of cheese on the playground at her school. There are 500 kids at this school and MY daughter’s friend has the bright idea to do this. Of course, my daughter is the one who actually DOES it. She’s in 6th grade, which is the last grade out for recess after lunch.

Apparently, in Wimpy Kid fashion, the cheese was left untouched overnight. It was also left untouched while grades 1 – 4 went out for recess the next day. And then it was 5th grades’ turn. Of the 498 children remaining in the school who did not have any part in planting the cheese, it was my SECOND daughter, Josie (the incredibly sensitive one), who was pointing at the cheese and got shoved forward, forcing her to touch it.

What are the chances? Of course since I’m Mary Carlton, the chances are apparently very good. If Tali had gotten in trouble it wouldn’t have been the end of the world. I think it would be beneficial to get in trouble at least once before going to junior high. Then, if and when it happens again, she won’t be a mess and we won’t be shocked.
But, Josie was the one I was worried about. A child who is already nervous, anxious and shy does not need the added pressure of The Cheese Touch. Having everyone run away from you where ever you go is not conducive to building one’s self esteem.

Josie, however, is very resourceful and can manage on her own more than she herself realizes. In a tactical move of extreme brilliance, Josie was able to pass off “The Cheese Touch” to a substitute teacher and it’s now left the school…for the time being…