I have tried to teach my children the right way to act.
I have tried to teach my children to do the right things.
I have spent many years encountering situations and making efforts to instill in my children the lessons they will need to be good and caring people - and to survive in the world.
I often wonder how much these children listen to their mother.
I never know if they listen to the words they hear.
It is often when I am not with them that they are confronted by situations where they have to apply the lessons they have learned - they are on their own.
One day recently, I was talking to Little Billy.
We were discussing a problem he had encountered in one of his classes at school.
"There were three of them, Mom," he was trying to explain. "They wouldn't listen to me - they wouldn't let me help."
"Girls act that way, sometimes," I said. "Sometimes, when they are in groups - they act silly or mean. Maybe you should have not gotten mad - maybe you should have tried to handle it differently. Maybe you should have tried to charm them - use your charm," I suggested and smiled.
"But we got the wrong answers - I kept trying to tell them," he was exasperated. "Charm wouldn't have helped - they were just trying to boss me around," he was so sure.
"Maybe they didn't understand you. Maybe you weren't making yourself clear," I continued to try to determine the details of the problem and offer my wisdom. "What are you going to do?" I asked.
He shrugged his shoulders.
He lowered his head.
He ran his hands through his dark hair and he said ...
"I'll handle it, Mom," he giggled, "I can handle it. If you mess with the bull ... you're gonna get the horns."
*okey dokey*
On the upside ... Okay - I don't remember teaching him that lesson. That's got to be one of those Texas lessons his redneck daddy's been teachin' the boy.
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