A few weeks ago I gave my kid advice I thought, at the time, may go down as a fatherly moment of wisdom. Here’s the scene; At the office, if anyone says, “I hate this,” or “I hate that,” I will almost automatically respond, “Umm, ‘hate’ is a very strong word.” Eye rolls like marbles on warped hardwoods, and the phrase is replaced with, “OK, I strongly dislike _______”
After months of this someone began a sentence with, “I hate ________,” I looked up and said, “I think if you have hate in your mouth…that means you have hate in your heart.” Boom. BOooOOOOOOOOOOOMmmmMMMMM! Words to live by!
Enter my five year old. One day she says, “Daddy, (someone) hates (something). “Babe, if someone has hate in their mouth, that means they have hate in their heart.” Oh, yeahhh.
I definitely got my point across, and then some…
New scene; We’re all at dinner somewhere or on a soccer field and someone may say, “I hate the cold.” Finley will come up to me and say, “Daddy, I need to put a whisper in your ear.” I respond, “Yeah, babe.” Finley continues to whisper in my ear, “Um, daddy. (pointing with a sad face towards someone…friend or stranger) Um, Mr. ______ has hate in his heart.” I mean, holy crap…. You could be wrapped in Christmas lights holding a Barney doll with toenails made of petunia dust, but if you ever say “hate” in front Finley you may be damned to a heart of hate. :-/
Even worse is that some of her friends have caught on. While we were at Disney last week, one of Finley’s friends got in the minivan all upset. “What’s wrong, Bud?” we asked. “That man has hate in his heart.”
Fast forward to tonight; We’re all watching a movie and someone on the TV says something is, “stupid.” First thing Finley asks in the most innocent voice, “Daddy, can you have stupid in your heart?” Knowing what I’ve been going through, Jennifer helps, “Well, daddy?” All I could come up with, “I’m thinking.”
I tried to come up with something clever to combine the terms “hate” with “stupid.” Truth is I escaped to the pantry and crammed my face into a carton of flavor blasted Goldfish (with no water around) to make sure I couldn’t talk for a while.
So….what I thought was a moment of fatherly wisdom came full circle to hit my heart with some perfectly placed stupid. 🙂
F
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