Words

How often do we say things we don't mean?

Compliments - yes, you can compliment someone and totally not mean it...I think I recieve many of those kind...

Criticism - multiple times a day critical words fly out of my mouth, aimed mostly at myself and crazy mom's driving mini-vans (not meant as criticism if you drive a mini-van...just if you drive CRAZY in one!)

I just got a call from Lauren, who was crying because of something she had said.  I didn't know what she was crying about because it took her a while to get to the point of her story, Lauren likes to remember ALL the details when she tells a story, which went something like...

"You know Dolly? (name changed for confidentiality...and the girl annoyes me.)  Well, some of her friends say bad words like the b-word and the s-word.  And today they were saying those bad words to me and I was telling them to stop and they just kept saying them and so I was yelling something back at them and accidentally said the s-word (she's saying this as her voice is getting higher and higher pitched - to the point that I can't understand the end of her sentence) and now I feel really guilty!!"

"You said the s-word?"  I was thinking that s and f sound a lot alike.

I was relieved to understand that it was, in fact, the s-word!

So I told her that sometimes that happens because our brains are thinking faster than our mouths can move and sometimes words just pop out that we don't mean to say, and she doesn't need to feel bad about it.  She was consoled with those words and I was happy because I knew she didn't like the way she felt when saying it and would most likely never use that word again.  AND she felt comfortable enough to tell me what she had done...something that I know will stop with age.

Then her story continued as she told me the same group of kids - who I'm sure had a great laugh at the girl who asked them to stop swearing...by swearing - called her the b-word.

My advice to Lauren was..."Remember Little Bill?

When someone says something mean or unkind to you, all you have to say is...So?"

She giggled and understood what I meant.

Oh, to have the worries of...is my child going to pee their pants...as horrible as that sounds, I miss those days compared to the issues ahead with teenagers.

I just got a call from Emma, who told me that Lauren was being a "butt-face". 

Nice.