Teach your children…

There's this idea that children do as they are taught.

So wrong!

Parents teach bigotry, and children choose love. Parents teach Catholicism, and children choose premarital sex and contraception. Parents teach alcoholism, and children choose a sober life. Parents teach hoarding, and children choose a clean and organized life.

Here's the deal: children make their own decisions. They can be nice or nasty, and it's their choice.

I hope we keep showing our kids how to be nice and highlighting the good feelings that come from being nice. We can show our kids the effects nice people have had in our lives. We can teach nice, but kids make their own choices.

The adult bullies I have run into have kids. I pray those kids learn nice and make the choice to be nice.

My oldest doesn't even understand nice. When I make a pan of brownies for a neighbor or friend, she's upset that I'm giving our stuff away. We have no shortage of food, but she's very upset when I give things away. I make a loaf of bread to give away, and she doesn't understand that I'm taking time to make a thing to give away.

We can teach all we want, all we can, but kids do what they do.

Primary Thought

It's always Calliope.
Tonight I was thinking I'd get frisky with hubby. I got out lotion and was massaging his feet. He hardly noticed me. A couple minutes in, "oh hi."
I keep going on the first foot, move to the next, and I'm hoping he feels good and relaxed and wants to kiss me. Then he says, "Social Thinking."
He was reading about therapies for autism treatment! I'm not getting any tonight.