What's the Good Word

Got an email from a home schooling site today about the ten words we should use with our preschoolers every day. I think they are good words to use with EVERYONE every day. The words are:

Thank you. Sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it? Well, it is. I mean it should become instinct to say thank you. The harder thing is to be really grateful. And I admit that sometimes when I am not feeling kindly to a child, I say thank you with a snarl in my voice. Being polite. Word but not intention. I mean, the kid has just hammered two horseshoe nails into your 100-year-old stair banister and told you that the teacher’s complaints about his school behavior were lies. He hands you a spoon so you can stir the eggs into the casserole and you’re supposed to say thank you and mean it? In a word: yeah.

Tell me more: Okay, this kid can go on for twenty minutes about the booger on the principal’s nose before he tells you that the science class did a special project. And you’re supposed to encourage him to elaborate? Again, yeah.

Please. Another no brainer. Except, this kid won’t respond to please. You have to follow it up with a raised voice and a threat or two. Okay. But I guess we’re supposed to start with the please thing.

How about a hug? Okay. Maybe not with everyone. But lots of grownups need them too and many never get them.

The others are: Let’s all pitch in, you can do it, how can I help, it’s time to…(this one is about setting boundaries) and I love you.

The thing is, saying these things isn’t enough. You have to mean them. And one other thing: God could use a few of these sentiments from us, too.

Thank you God. Please help me. I know YOU can do it, so I won’t worry. The pastor read some good words from You on Sunday. Tell me more. You expect your people to be your representatives on earth. How can I help? Let’s all pitch in.

And the #1 thing we could tell God every day? I love you. How about a hug?

" In a Relationship"

I'm in a relationship. <3 If you are in to Facebook, you know that supposedly means "I have a significant other." Unfortunately, people seem to be getting into relationships earlier these days. How young is too young? The other day I heard a three year old talking about his "old woman." And she IS old. She's four. Robbing the cradle, that's what she's doing. Abercrombie-Fitch has its finger on the nation's pulse. It is marketing padded bra bikini swimwear to 8 year olds who otherwise would have no padding. God slipped up, it seems but man has intervened. And, come on, if not for the padding, how else is an 8 year old to get a "significant other?" The rule at my house is, and has always been, you are old enough for group dating at 14 and for single dating at 16. That doesn't mean the kids have not claimed to have girl or boy friends. They sit together in assemblies and talk on the phone. THEY DO NOT DATE. Date means go somewhere together. And someone usually pays. But things are different today. Anna and Brandon used to date last year when they were both 12. But at 13, Anna has clearly outgrown Brandon's boyish humor. She wants a real man. Someone who can belch the alphabet. Someone like 14 year old Jonathan. She's seen the condom he carries in his Velcro wallet. He tried to use it last semester as a water balloon but couldn't get it to break before his homeroom teacher Mrs. Robertson caught him and called his parents. As it turned out, it wasn't a big deal because his dad gave him the condom. (I believe he gave it to Jonathan the day Jonathan's mother announced she was going to wash the car. The little package had been in the glove box, and his dad was pretty sure Mom wouldn't believe the water balloon thing coming from someone 36 years old.) But enough of Jonathan's parents' problems.) Jonathan and Anna are dating now. He walks her to American History and she saves him a seat at the lunch table. Everyone knows they're a couple. And therein lies the trouble. because Brandon used to sit in the seat next to Anna, and he's ticked. So he posted to Facebook that he was single now, and below that, he added that Anna was the class "ho." Several people commented, including ten of Anna's friends. They hotly contested Brandon's claims. Four of his friends commented as well. Three of them had also "dated" Anna and they agreed with Brandon. She'd eat lunch with anyone who could belch his name. "Not true," said Anna's supporters. "She wouldn't sit with Brandon." It isn't easy to slow Brandon down. His parents could take away his computer time, but he has his own laptop and keeps it in his room. AND his $200 cell phone is Internet enabled so he can access Facebook whenever he wants. Truthfully, though, they don't know what to do. Yesterday, his mom saw one of his comments on the social network. he is "in a relationship" again. It's this Russian chick who wants to come to America to meet him. He responded to an email he got from her. When his parents confronted him about it he got testy. "I don't know what you people want from me," he said. "She's a poor girl stuck in Communism who got my name from a friend of hers who once sold me real estate." That was a little scary, but after all, the girl was far away...in Russia...and she was 29, which is certainly old enough to be "in a relationship."