A confession and a fear

When I was in grade school, maybe 4th or 5th grade, I was invited to a party. One of my classmates gave me a peice of notebook paper with the information on it. Nothing fancy, definitely nothing official looking. Then again, we were 9. Not sure why I would expect Crane stationery, and Print Shop wasn't quite a household item yet. The party was to be held at the home of a fellow classmate. But not just any classmate. By my standards, this was THE most popular girl in school. She had the most friends, was the most athletic (she was always one of the people picking for teams at recess or in gym), and all that other necessary stuff to be a pre-teen A lister.
My reaction was this- I crumpled up the paper and threw it away as soon as I got home. Why on earth would I do that?, you ask. Because I was convinced, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that it was a fake party and this was all a set up. Just to make me look stupid. I could just picture all the cool kids waiting at someone's house, down the street from this girl's house, watching from bushes and around corners, as I stood alone on her doorstep and continued to press the doorbell. This scene would give them laughing foder for days to come. And I would never live it down.
I rationalized- why else would the most popular girl in school invite me to her party? I didn't even let the idea that this was a real party enter my head. I didn't even tell my mother about the ruse, as I didn't want her to know how I was the butt of the cool kids' joke.
The Monday after the prank would have taken place (had I fallen for the trick), I heard two girls talking before class started. They were talking about the party they had gone to Saturday night, and how much fun it had been. Clever, I thought. They even had a contention plan if I didn't show up. They'd stage people to talk about "the party" so I'd think I missed something great, and be inclined to show up the next time they planned to prank me.
That night during dinner, the phone rang and my mother answered. She spoke briefly with the other party and returned to the table. She asked me why I hadn't told her there had been a party that weekend. I started to get teary eyed. How cruel! To even extend the prank so far as to involve my mother! Seeing my tears, my mother explained that the phone call had been from the mother of the most popular girl in school, and she was worried about me as I had been the only kid invited who hadn't shown up to the REAL LIVE PIZZA party they had on Saturday.
I don't remember if I explained the real reason to my mom or if I just shrugged it off.
But a few months later, this girl had another party, and the invitation came straight from her mom to my mom. So I went. And honestly, as I walked to the door, a part of me was still scared that no one would answer and that this really was an elaborate prank. A long con, you might say. And when the door opened and I saw all the other kids already there, I was genuinely surprised!
So my confession is this- I was THAT self involved and self conscious that I believed a group of fellow 4th graders would spend that much time and energy to hurt ME. What a fool I was.
And this is my fear- that my kids may some day think the world revolves around them to the point that they will be convinced a simple hand written note is equal to certain public humiliation.
How do I prevent this? I don't see anything like that in them at this point. But if I ever do, how do I nip it quickly? I think I have wasted YEARS of my life being worried about what other people think about ME! I would hate for my kids to experience that for even a minute.