What I hope my kids DON’T learn!

Today Colin and I went to James’ class holiday party to help out.  There were three parent volunteers, myself included.  Everything was going well — the kids had veggies, chips & dip, raisins and CapriSun.  The parent volunteers iced the cookies so that we could pass them out and the class could decorate them.

James’ teacher was out today (and for the previous two days), but she had left a bag of wrapped gifts for every student in her class.  The substitute teacher passed them out and the kids TORE into them!  Almost every kid said “COOL!” or “Awesome!!  A NO homework pass!” or something along those lines.  However, one kid came up to me and said, “I HATE this.  I think it’s stupid and it’s girly.”  He handed it to me and walked away.  I wanted to smack that kid.  How rude!! (<< said in the voice of Stephanie from “Full House”)

There were a variety of fronts: Santa, Snowflakes and Reindeer.  (“That kid” got the reindeer.)

All I could do in that moment was pray that MY kid would never say something like that.  When we got home, I asked if he had heard “that kid” and what he had said.  James said he HAD heard it, so we talked about how when you are given a gift, whether you like it or not, you say thank you, and you appreciate it.  We talked about how, if Mrs. E had been there, would have had her feelings hurt because he was so nasty about being given something.  And, we discussed how NO ONE has to give you a present.  She spent time and money putting these things together.

We’d been home for a little over an hour, and “that kid” came over to see if James could play.  I told him no – that James was working on something.  Yep, I lied to “that kid.”  I set a bad example by lying.  I KNOW.

James asked why he couldn’t play, and I told him that I didn’t like how “that kid” treats people.  He is disrespectful and I don’t want him playing/hanging out with people like that.

I really hope James got something out of our conversation.

What do you hope your child doesn’t EVER learn/say?  What would you have done if you were in this situation?