Life Lessons

When I picked Zach up from school yesterday and asked him the standard "How was your day? Did your bear stay on the honey pot?", he gave me this uh-oh look and told me his bear went to the cave...not good. So after a brief conversation with his teacher, turns out Zach was a chatty cathy which was distracting to the class, and was somewhat disrespectful to his teacher. I was so upset with him that I didn't talk to him on the walk home from school and by the time we got in the house he knew I was MAD. I have to admit I yelled - really loud - and I know I might have overreacted a little bit, but he was sitting at the kitchen table just crying his eyes out. We went to pick Alex up from therapy and when we got back I told him he could read a book while I got dinner ready, but then he was eating, writing an apology letter to his teacher, taking his shower and going straight to bed. By 5:30, he was in bed! About an hour after he was in bed I walked upstairs to give Alex her medicine and he was sitting on the edge of his bed and asked if we could talk. Boy I was not prepared for the conversation that followed. I told him why I was so upset with him and we started talking about the "golden rule" and how you need to treat others the way you want to be treated. I asked if he would like it if he was trying to talk to his teacher and she was ignoring him and making funny noises and talking to other people while he needed her attention and he said no, that that would hurt his feelings - so that was our starting ground for the conversation. He then started talking (and everything I'm about to say are his words exactly) about how everyone needs to have a kind heart, that some people can be so mean that it leaves others heartbroken. He said one day at the pool last year he heard a boy say (about Alex) "why is that girl here, how is she going to get in the pool?" and he said I know Sissy heard that and it probably really hurt her heart. He then started talking about how it didn't matter what language you spoke, if you had light skin or dark skin, if you wore glasses, spoke funny or even smelled bad (had to chuckle at that one) that everyone is special in their own way and that just because people don't look or act like you does not give you the right to be mean hearted. After we talked for about an hour he asked if we could say his prayers - he prayed for the people who are mean hearted that they would become nice, he prayed that the people who got their feelings hurt and had broken hearts would feel better and he prayed that everyone would feel special. He then apologized for his behavior for the day and promised to have a better day tomorrow. I was so touched by his sincerity and compassion. I gave him a kiss and hug and told him how proud of him I was and that I really enjoyed our conversation. I really wondered when I walked out of his room who was more impacted from our conversation. While I started out being really angry with him, I left his room really proud of him. I seriously think a lot of people could learn a lot from my 5 year old.