You take that back where you found it!

Kids bring stuff home. Sand from the playground. A stray puppy. A new friend who shows up in your kitchen eating that last piece of chicken that you were saving to eat during Monday Night Football with homemade ice tea... Germs. Colds. You expect all of those things when you send your child into the world to 'play nicely' with others. You try your best to bolster all of that with good home training. Dust your shoes off before you come inside; leave that mangy dog where you found it; let little Johnnie eat at his own house; wash your hands. However my child is at the developmental stage affectionately know as the parrot stage where she repeats everything and incorporates it into her speech pattern. Knowing this, we try to infuse her with as much new knowledge as possible to develop her mind. But we're not the only ones infusing her with knowledge...

The other day my daughter said "go away" to my wife and me. The hair on the back of my neck stood up straight because my child is the most polite miniature human you will ever meet (no thanks to me: all praise to the female parental unit). So to hear her use such an abrupt and abrasive phrase came as a shock to me and I immediately began to try to figure who is teaching my child to be rude when we (read: my wife) try so hard to raise a courteous girl. And then it dawned on me. It could be anyone: the kids at the play center, tv, or adults who don't realize that she's listening. With that I realized JUST how hard making sure you raise your child correctly really is! Trust me; I had no delusions as to how hard that is but that moment crystalized it for me.

So what do you do? You can't/shouldn't put your kids in a bubble. The answer is that we have to be extra vigilant with our infusion of our values and information because before you can say "pardon me", your kid's 'please' and 'thank you's will be replaced with 'go away' and a constant stream of phrases that make you cringe...if you don't stem the tide. And that the real job of parents; not isolation, replacement. At least I think so.

These are my thoughts...what are yours?