Jordan still sucks his thumb a fair amount. We remind him constantly not to (citing teeth, hygiene, etc) but it's still quite a habit. The other day, he was doing it while watching some third-grade boys play soccer, and I kept whispering to him not to but he kept forgetting, or not caring, or whatever. On the way home in the car, we had this exchange:
Rachel: Hey Jordan, I think you should really work harder on not sucking your thumb. Not only is it bad for your teeth and it gets germs in your mouth, but other kids might think it's babyish.
Jordan: Nobody said they think it is babyish.
Rachel: Well, they might be thinking it but not saying it.
Jordan: If they don't say it to me, I don't care.
I was pretty much stopped in my tracks by that statement. Shouldn't we all care a lot less about what negative things people might think of us, as long as they keep it to themselves?
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UPDATE: After thinking about it some more, I'm not feeling that Jordan's response is really based in an idealistic self-determination; I think it's more a case of not wanting to admit he's doing anything wrong or undesirable, and not wanting to be told what to do. these are things we're seeing a lot of in other contexts.
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