As a parent, we wish to impact our children's life positively. We all wish for our children to be polite, courteous and display behavior that...well... we believe...is a reflection of us to society. At the early age of four, my son, had a temper. He would get angry, turn red, shake. Then point his finger toward the sky and proclaim, "You make me livvey mad daddy!" He meant to say really mad, but whatever. As a dad, I thought I was doing well by teaching him to talk about what was making him mad, to not bottle up his emotions. Then it happened. We were walking up the stairs from grocery shopping. I was walking, my son had to monkey crawl, hand then a foot up, then hand, because he was small and only four. I heard him talking, with two bags of groceries in my arms, I say, "Lets go inside." He still is talking. I peer over my brown grocery bag and say, "Who are you talking to?" I notice tears streaming down his face, no crying and saying that livvey hurts. I see that a bee has put his stinger directly into my child's hand! The child I taught to talk through his emotions is doing so with a bee! I was heartbroken, I felt I had failed, and most importantly there was my little buddy being hurt from something I had taught him. I am so sorry to this day he had to endure this, extremely sorry.
M.E. Early Adulthood--Take care to enjoy the things your children do, even if those things are not viewed well by society. When you do teach, as you will have to, make sure you understand that your child may listen to every word you say. YOU are the one that they trust most in the big world!