In my little quote book, I recently recorded a kid-quote that I'm not sure I will want to remember. It was innocent sounding, but it was an insult. I've never understood how some people think it is cute when little kids repeat profanity, but in my heart, I find my kids calling each other "poop" or "a dirty diaper" worse. It isn't just naively repeating something they heard - it's an expression of hatred - and while I really don't believe they hate each other (even when they say those exact words), I do know that they annoy each other sometimes, but I can't let them grow up thinking that when someone annoys you, it's acceptable to verbally abuse them, or giggle to myself at their little kid level insults.
Well the other day, Caleb's frustration boiled over at Annalise. I usually take him aside and ask him if calling her "ugly" will make her prettier or if calling her "stupid" will make her smarter - and he is old enough to understand it does not. But this time, I was not up to a talk, so I insisted he compliment her 3 times. Here's what he said:
Annalise, you are a flower,
and you smell really good,
and you kind of look like a bow.
It may not have been completely sincere, but Annalise was very pleased!
We do that, too. Tyler likes to call Danielle stupid, so we make him compliment her when he does. It usually solves the problem... for the rest of the evening anyway. Home is supposed to be a place of love and acceptance. Even though Tyler probably doesn't truly believe Danielle is stupid,I don't want her to feel like she is or that she can't be herself at home. Home should be a sanctuary from the ugliness of the rest of the world. I think it's important to teach our children to respect that, but it's certainly not easy.
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