I had a conversation with Gavin (6) about the "I" word. You know..."idiot". I told him it was not nice to call anyone by this word. It means you think the person is not very smart. Furthermore, you would probably get sent to the principle's office if you used that word at school. He was very confused. He could not understand why anyone would go thorought saying "oh, you are not very smart" when you could just say instead of "idiot".
He had a point so I said if he had to say something like that, he could use other words that had the same meaning and he probably would not get in trouble for saying them. Of course he said "like what"? "Hmmm....Liiiike...........bird brain or maybe knuckle head." Gavin seemed content with his new vocabulary and stopped asking questions.
Several weeks passed and Sammy (9) came running in from outside saying "Gavin used the i-word. He called me an IDIOT mom!"
"Send him in here." I said.
Gavin came in with his head hung low in anticipation of being in trouble. "Gavin did you say the i-word?"
"Mo-om, I didn't!"
"Sammy says you called him an Idiot and you know that is not a nice word."
Sobbing Gavin said "Mama, No I didn't."
Guilty of something...I could just tell by the way he sobbed he had done something he knew to not be very nice.
"Gavin... I told you not to use that word you are going to have to spend 5 minutes on the time out steps."
"But Mom,I didn't! I really didn't! I promise!"
"Well then just what exactly did you say to him?"
Now say this next sentence with a slight lisp:"I didn't call him an Idiot, I called him an Imbes-th-ole that would be Imbecile."
As I laughed, I heard him say under his breath again with his thick toungue talk: "Well I don't really even know what that means."
"I am sure you don't Gavin. Go outside and play. No time out and be nicer to your brother. He is the only one you've got."
