LIFE ISN"T FAIR

We have never used any kind of swear words in our family. Even the commonly accepted words were never used just because they sounded like a curse. Our friends were of like mind and so our children’s friends didn’t curse either. We didn’t watch TV and our children were only allowed 1 hour a day of PBS TV. To say our children lived a rather sheltered life would be an understatement.

Kindergarten for our children was rather protected. All our children had Mrs. Gore. She had a Mr. Rogers personality and she ran her classroom just like you would expect in HIS neighborhood. First grade was a big change for Nate. One day I got a call from the principle. Apparently some of the boys in his class thought it was funny to teach Nate dirty words and then have him say them to his teacher. Nate was totally innocent and the teacher and principal knew this but rules were rules. Nate had been given one day in school suspension for cursing. The boys who set up Nate got 3 days of out of school suspension.

I thought the best thing to do was to allow Nate to learn from this experience. Years later Ben came home from school wanting to tell me a dirty joke. Once the joke was out of Ben’s mouth Nate grabbed him and began chewing him out. Allowing Nate to suffer through one day of school consequences had lasting impact on him and each of my children as he made sure they understood the rules. It’s hard as a mother to allow our children to learn from their mistakes even if they are innocent. But life isn’t fair and it’s good for each of us to learn this early in life.