Civility, defining wronged, and XY chromosomes
Need to go to bed, but wanted to pass on this cute occurrence from this morning.
All four boys and I were up and awake, and they were getting ready to play out in the backyard before breakfast and before they needed to begin getting ready for our trip to Sabbath services. However, I had other plans, as I wanted to discuss something with them: civility. As in, their lack of it concerning each other.
After gathering them together for Dad’s lesson and getting it going, I mentioned that they are at their weakest in displaying any civility toward each other when one of them believes that he has been wronged by one of the others, and that behaving in a civil manner is all the more crucial when you believe you’ve been wronged.
8-year-old Boy #3 asks, “What’s ‘wronged’?”
Immediately, 12-year-old Boy #1 slaps Boy #3 in the back of the head and says, “There — I’ve wronged you.”
OK… maybe one child hitting another isn’t exactly “cute.” But it was funny. Well, OK… Maybe one child hitting another isn’t “funny.” Maybe it’s wrong. Yeah, that’s it! It’s wrong!
Ahhhhh, who am I kidding? It was hilarious! (You had to be there, of course.) And after the sting wore off, Boy #3 laughed, too. And he very likely returned the educational “favor” later in a quite uncivil manner once my back was turned.
Perhaps “Take 2″ on the civility lesson will go better. If they’re tied up. And in separate rooms.
Too bad they don’t do Three Stooges movies anymore. That scene would have fit perfectly.
Yeaup, three stooges can to mind.
Boys will be boys, and dads have to civilize them.
Last Thanksgiving, Jonny and Tommy got into a food war with whipped cream. It started small, then it quickly escalated. The next thing you know, they’re running around the house, spraying whipped cream everywhere.
The ladies got a little upset, but the guys just lauged. Cleaning up the mess was their punishment. And they did a good job, too. Between shouts of whom got the better of the other.
Seems like there’s the theory side of this particular lesson and then there’s the practical side. I wonder if boy #3 was able to connect the dots?