Give Respect

Respect. It's a lesson I've been trying to teach my boys since they were little and decided to throw their first toy across a room, or tell me "no". However, for the first time I think it's starting to sink into their thick haired heads a little better these days. Recently we have had issues with a few little friends being less than kind to their own siblings and to Samuel and his sibling. He has started to realize that he is not being respected by these little friends when he doesn't want to take part in there less than nice games and is instead being bullied by them. This was brought to my attention Sunday and even though my 6 year old is being bullied, he recognizes that is not the way you "respect" people and has chosen all by himself to back off of these friendships - a proud moment for us as parents. I am not a huge fan of the "work it out" theory; I think that's only okay when you know there isn't violence, or disrespect going on. After all, how are our children supposed to know how to properly work things out if we don't teach them and guide them through this learning process? I don't want my children to think that "working things out" means being bullied, or bullying others and than not being able to say anything to us....so in certain circumstances it is good, but if I think there is a hint of violence or disrespect being thrown around, I want to guide my children through this and sometimes that means learning to respect people, property, or things. I have received slack for this in the past from friends and others and that's okay, but in this one Sunday afternoon, my child showed me that they were thankful for the guidance and his understanding of respect is sinking in even in this society were, in this blogger's opinion, appropriate respect even among children is fading fast. ~