Are you turning into a Smoothie?

When Sabi was in preschool, she began to adopt habits from her friends. We understood this was natural, but we also wanted to help her recognize if a behavior was truly hers or something she was mirroring from others. So, we introduced the “Smoothie” analogy to her. Think of it like this: if Sabi is an apple and her friend is an apricot, when Sabi adopts a habit from her friend, she changes from an apple smoothie to an apple-apricot smoothie. This simple analogy resonated with her. Even as she grew older and started mirroring characters in books, we referred back to this concept. It’s a straightforward way we found to help her understand influence and individuality.