Friendly

I've always said that I'm not friendly. I've had many of my close friends who have tried to dispute it but when faced with the clear facts even they have had to admit, I am not friendly. For example, if I go to the grocery store or to Walmart, I do not find it necessary to make conversation with the check out clerk. Now I am not saying that I am rude. I walk up and say hello, smile, nod, whatever. But I don't see the point in carrying on a chit-chat conversation with a total stranger. I just don't feel obligated to carry on a conversation about nothing important with whomever happens to be sitting close by. If a meaningful conversation starts or there is an important observation to make, then I will jump right into it, get to know them and have a new friend. But I don't enjoy having useless conversation about nothing at all with a person I don't know just because we happen to be in close proximity of each other. Now, I have worked really hard in the last few months to be more friendly. To put myself out there and try to get to know people. However it is completely out of my comfort zone to be friendly.
It seems though that my children are going to take more after their dad than me. It absolutely amazed me how many people Jonah met as a kindergarten student this past year. He knew almost every teacher, the office staff, the principal, and so many students in all grades. I know it made a difference knowing the variety of students since he stayed each afternoon for the After School program. However, if it would have been me, I probably would have had my certain group of friends and that would have been all. Again, I'm not a snob and I don't think I'm better than anyone. I'm just not real comfortable with that "get to know you" type conversation. I wasn't comfortable even when I was his age.
We go through Walmart at times and kids and adults alike will say hello to Jonah and smile at me. They will walk by and I turn and ask him who they were. Most of the time he knows their name but if not their name then he knows what grade they taught, where they worked, who they were related to, etc. Completely amazing to me. And I'm so proud that he is easily able to make friends and get to know new people. This summer we decided to send him to the school's summer daycare program rather than his old daycare with all children that would be younger than him. The first day he only knew one other boy in the program and that was from playing basketball and not even on the same team. Now, he knows all of the kids and most of them actually attend different schools. And since they've been going to Summer School each morning, he has met even more people. He probably knows more people right now than I do!
This morning my husband Jason called and said, "Well, we have another Mr. Popularity on our hands." I, of course, needed more explanation. He said that when he dropped Riley off this morning for Summer School, they walked down the hallway to his class. They passed a few students and teachers and each one spoke to Riley and knew his name.
It looks like I will end up being known as Jonah and Riley's mom. I just won't know who they are.