On the beautiful winter day of Monday, January 12, Cameron (my son) and I came home as usual from school. He had finished his homework and was enjoying a little downtime playing Wii Mario Kart. Cameron came into the kitchen to ask what was for dinner because he was already hungry. I answered him, "We'll be having chicken with vegetables, since we need to get more vegetables in our bodies." With the most matter of fact look on his face and without hesitation, my angelic son answered, "Ahhh, vegetables? You're an asshole."Therein lies the reason for:
Cameron's List of Reasons Why One Should Not Call His Mom
or Anyone Else Names
The list has been run through Mommy Spell Check. However, I have decided to leave the sentences as they have been written.
1. Because it hurts people's feelings
2. And you get bad things in return
3. It's not polite.
4. You can lose friends.
5. It makes me cry.
6. It makes me feel bad.
7. If I'm feeling like I can call someone an asshole,
I walk away and I can count to ten.
8. I can go to my room and think about it.
9. I deserve to be treated kinder and calling my mom an a-hole
is not treating myself kindly.*
10. Mom makes me write long lists.
After the list had been written, I had Cameron read it out loud to me so he GOT IT. I then wrote the word ASSHOLE on a piece of paper and had Cameron rip it into pieces and told him to make sure every little piece made it into the trash, because that is where it belongs.
Dinner was served - chicken, mashed potatoes and broccoli. I made sure that I gave him more than I would have originally. Cameron used the honey mustard, ketchup, and barbeque sauce to make a concoction. He proceeded to dunk his broccoli in the mix and eat it. I didn't comment. He ate all of broccoli without complaint. It was a nice dinner. He even thanked me for the nice meal.
With that, I am looking forward to a profanity-free evening.
*I have been teaching Cameron that we project ourselves onto others - it's the mirror concept. So if we see someone as "not a nice person" it really means that there is some aspect of ourselves that we do not like. Hence, Cameron calling me an a-hole means that I still see myself as that - not good enough, judgmental, etc. We all need to treat ourselves kinder,
we deserve it.
