The F Word

Aidan loves to tease Ethan, and of course, as an older brother, Ethan sees it as pestering. This morning, Aidan was pestering teasing Ethan, like usual, when I heard Ethan mumble the words, "Oh go away, f*gg*t."

WHAT?!? WHAT IN THE WORLD DID YOU JUST SAY?!

(In fact, he didn't say that, but I didn't take the time to find out. I'll tell you what he really said in a minute.)

I didn't even stop and ask him to repeat himself, which would have avoided a huge misunderstanding, but it also wouldn't have made for a good teaching moment either.

I admonished him to never use that word, EVER. I explained what it meant. I told him that if he ever heard anyone use that word, EVER, he should strongly tell them to stop and to tell them that it is NOT OKAY to use that word.

(Then I calmed down a little, and told him I wasn't mad at him, but that I wanted him to understand how awful that word is, and did he understand? He did.)

Then I told him about a news article I heard about six boys beating up another boy for 30 minutes while video taping it, and then uploading it to YouTube. (Okay, okay, in full disclosure I learned about the news article from The Talk.) I asked him how he would feel if he was the boy being beaten up. I taught him what he could do if he saw someone being bullied (strongly tell the bully to stop; find an adult to help). I explained to him that it is so important to NOT be a follower, and that it is so important to love others and to help those in need.

This conversation went on for at least 10 minutes. Then, Ethan whispered, "What word is it that you don't want me to say?" (I really do have a very sweet boy who never swears and still thinks the word "stupid" is a bad word.)

I asked him, "What word did you say?"

He said, "I called Aidan a fat kid."


Oh.

(I felt really bad for a moment.)

Then I apologized profusely for the misunderstanding, and told him that while it isn't nice to call his brother a fat kid, that's not really a "bad word." (P.S. Aidan's not fat. And he knows it. And we talked about not name calling too.)

We hugged, and now he knows not to use the F- word. Ever.