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Tuesday, June 21, 2011

The Mancub - Appropriate Decisions

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The other evening I ventured into the living room with my laptop from the home of my friends down here in Hurricane, Utah. On the flatscreen was a movie I’d never seen before playing vaguely from somewhere in the background as I rhythmically typed away at the keys of my blogpost for today. Everyone else had left the room with the exception of Michelle’s youngest mancub. I wasn’t paying too much attention to the movie, but working on my post when one of the characters said something.

It was the one particular word that caught my attention.

This isn’t a word one uses in civilized conversation. In fact, this isn’t a word one uses in any type of normal conversation.

The mancub looked at me.

He asked me what that word meant.

A blankness flashed across my mind.

This was not a topic to be broached by someone to their friend’s kid because the subject matter. Heck, this wasn't even covered in the 5th or 6th grade maturation sessions at my elementary school.

I made ready to deflect the boy, letting him know that he should ask his dad at a later time what this particular thing was, but the mancub seemed to catch the gist and said, “Oh, I get it…this is something inappropriate, isn’t it?”

I concurred with the statement and felt a rush of pride in this boy as he went on to say, “Then I don’t think this is a movie we should be watching,” right before I was about to suggest changing to something else.

We watched The Incredibles instead.

I’m still proud of him for making that decision - and for parents who teach their children about making appropriate decisions...even when they aren't always there to help them do it.

8 comments:

Kalei's Best Friend said...

Ahhh, youth... There are some that just rise above the rest... My confidence is lifted...

Danielle said...

The boy must have good parents! ;)

Anonymous said...

Good for him. I know good kids are out there. I work with them every day. There are a lot of parents doing the right thing.

tammy said...

You always hope your own kids would do the same.

shari1172 said...

That's great he had the courage to change the channel. I went to the movies with a new friend not realizing it was a Rated R movie. I was in there for 5 minutes and I realized it was not appropriate. I looked at my new friend and said, "I can't stay." I then asked her if we could leave. We went to another movie and her back started hurting. She asked if we could leave. I said, "SURE!" We are the best of friends now. It's great to know what to do beforehand. That way when you're in that situation it's easier to make the right choice. This happened to me in my early 30's. So sometimes even at an older age we can still have awkard situations.

Caution/Lisa said...

My 9 year old asked what condoms are. I hesitated just long enough for him to tell me he understood that I probably didn't know either. I'm good with that explanation.

Karen M. Peterson said...

I love it when kids make those kinds of decisions on their own.

Teachinfourth said...

I'm glad that Tanner came to the realization he did, I don't think it was my place to explain the specific word to him...most definitely a father's job with that one...

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