Peer pressure... when does it go away??

When you think of peer pressure you think of punk kids trying to force cigarettes on a geeky, book hugging science ace behind the school gymnasium. You don't think home owner, mother of 2, educated person.

I don't think peer pressure really ends with adolescence it just gets re-channeled into different forms. In your pre-kids day it is about whose clothes are better or whose boyfriend or husband is better looking. It evolves into who has the better car then later who has the better house or apartment. Who has the better furnishings and decor tastes also follows this.

When you have kids it reaches a whole new level. It starts during pregnancy with who has the best or worst pregnancy and labour/delivery. Followed quickly by baby reaching its first milestones earlier and earlier. The best dressed baby or cutest kid also is part of this not to forget who has the fanciest stroller. Then kids start to get into preschool (this is where we are) and it becomes who got into the best program and who has the coolest backpack. I'm sure it will continue on through the elementary, highschool and university years. Whose kids got accepted where and into which program.

I'm wondering if when I am old and decrepit with my walker or scooter I will be trying to compare who has the whitest false teeth or who has the most great-grandkids. Or maybe somewhere in there you will accept that you have no control about what everyone else is doing or the clothes they have or how smart their kids are and just enjoy the simple things in life like a good old fashioned walker-derby or scooter race or cut-throat poker tourney.