Crazy Rude

My kids are not allowed to say butt or fart. My in-laws mock me, but I'm responsible for what they say, and to me, it doesn't make much sense to teach them to say please and thank you and use their manners and then allow them to use crude words. We try to keep it classy. Soap box moment over.

So Eddie asked me yesterday, "Mom, does (insert name of kid friend) know Jesus?"

"I'm not sure. I think so, buddy."

"But he says butt." Wait, what?

"Well, just because someone uses words that are crude, that doesn't mean they don't know Jesus."

"What does crude mean?"

"It's a word that means crazy rude. Put those words together and you get crude." I am a genius.

So after the initial shock of this conversation wore off, I was horrified. I'm teaching my child to be judgmental and be critical of others and question their relationship with God based on the words they use. How did this happen? How do I undo this? Time to freak out, Momma.

And then I started to really digest the six-year-old logic behind the questions. How better to judge people than by what they say? He didn't ask why this kid looks a certain way or how smart he is or what cartoons he likes or how many toys he has. He wanted to know about his heart. What a powerful and pure motive for a little kid to have. And not only was he asking about his friend's heart, but he asked based on what he knows he should not do, the rules that have been laid out for him. Now, not everyone is governed by a crazy puritanical mother, so we discussed how different kids have different rules and that's okay. But he is expected to follow our rules.

What a great reminder though to be careful what you say. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Even kids get that. So watch it, people. My kid will hear you and want to talk about it. And then you end up on my blog.

Summer Wrap-Up

Well, technically I never "wrapped in," so how can I wrap up? There have been no blog posts in almost a year. It's a travesty. I mean, come on! I suppose I should summarize the year.

Here are the highlights. A few months into kindergarten, Eddie's teacher thought he was having seizures. Scary as hell. I took the poor kid to the doctor twice for two separate instances, and she said it's a highly dangerous lapse of attention called "zoning out." My kid was bored since everything at the beginning of the year is review and we spent the summer doing homeschool. So I learned my lesson. No learning all summer. It is verboten.

But eventually school got interesting and he quit counting ceiling tiles. And finished kindergarten at the top of his class. Eat dust, other five-year-olds!

I guess that's only two highlights. My memory is not what it used to be.

So Eddie's starting first grade in a few weeks, and I've still got Moira at home because she's not four until October. I have no idea what I'm going to do with this kid. It's like I can't even remember what life was like before summer break and she had a constant playmate. Ugh. If anyone else with little kids wants to get together after school starts, please let me know. I'm desperate.