Hmm

I must write/type this out lest I forget which is very unlikely but here goes:

(These posts are several years old. I'm trying to combine several different blogs and am way behind.)

Monday when I picked the boys up from school they jumped in the van as usual.  Landon had something to tell me. He said he got a fine that day. He lost $10 of his money at P.E. He said Coach had a conference with him and a girl in his class and that he had gotten the fine. I think this is his first one this year or second. I can't remember right now.

So. The question. What happened? Well for quite a while now Landon has said that the "s" word is really bad and that it should never be uttered.  Not what most people think at first but to him the "s" word is "stupid."  So it seems some girls in his class were using the word at lunch and then during P.E. in conversation. They weren't calling anyone stupid from what I understand.  So Landon tries to tell them it is a bad word and argues with one girl in particular who tries to tell him "No, it is not a bad word!"  From there Landon said he got really angry and them proceeded to say the "d" word.  Insert pause here.  Ok. hmm... So Landon (dreading the answer) "What d word?" He says I said "D-a-m" (more pausing).

All the mommy questions are going through my head and some pop out of my mouth at this point.  So Landon "Where do you hear that word" and "Do we use that kind of language" and so on.  He said coach talked to him and said the word he used was much worse than the word the girl used and that it was so bad she couldn't even say it.  I really don't think he knew this word was all that bad. He says he doesn't know but he thinks he heard it from a girl at school at some point.  Anyway, we know all our kids will inevitably hear these words. There are many teaching moments to come.
We were able to talk and pray with him.  His teacher suggested we have him look up the word stupid to understand the context within it is being used.  She wondered if the context of "bad word" was understood.

She shared the following:

"In the book I am reading to the class for Reading Workshop there's a a scene where the character says that a situation is just "plain stupid". I read that yesterday and saw a streak of terror cross Landon's face. My take is that it's a word that we NEVER call other people but there are times when a particular thing or situation might be "stupid". Maybe having him look it up in the dictionary and further explaining that God did not create "stupid" people - things or situations can be "foolish" - would be helpful. Please understand I don't advocate the use of stupid just want to make sure he understands the context so he doesn't get offended if he hears it used in context.

So his teacher hit the nail on the head:) Mrs. Dippold is a wonderful teacher and God send! She is so easy to talk to and started to pray with me at the beginning of our first conference.  This all reminded me of a story our Pastor's son told during a sermon.  He said we home school our kids, don't have cable and pretty much try to keep them in a bubble.  One day his kids were playing Uno and his son got upset about something during the game and said "Damn!" He said all their mouths flew wide open and jaws dropped.  Where could he have heard that word.  The truth is we live in a world where our kids are going to hear and see lots of things. It is our job to be there to point them in the right direction. When I told my Mom I have to admit we did chuckle a little.  It is just hard to picture.

Sept. 2012