A Lesson in Kindness...

I can only tell this story from the story point of view. I was there, but too young to "tell it as it is" if you will. Bare with me folks, and family. ehh umm ("ehh umm" represents throat clearing noises).

My Family had this birthday party invite policy growing up:

1.you have to mail, or in person drop off your invites at your guests house (this way people who were not invited were not aware).

2. We were only allowed to invite one more guest then the age we were turning (I guess this was to insure that ...hmm I don't know, we had small parties? You got me). Anyways Policy two isn't that important for this story, it's up to you if you want to acknowledge it or not.

That said, it was Jonah's 4th birthday. Four years old, big deal right? Absolutely! However, big deals didn't subside the family rule. Jonah would have to do the 4th birthday invites just like the rest (by "the rest" I mean our older sisters). Five guests, five hand delivered invites. Done and done.

Skip to the part of the story when it's a preschool day, and I accompany my Mom to pick Jonah up from school. So what's happening behind the scenes, is Jonah, sweet little almost four year old Jonah is joining his classmates for show and tell (oh and family member's if this part of the story is off, excuse me! I was only two, bare with me okay?). So Jonah, he's telling his class about his birthday party, who is invited, who's not! What they're going to do at the party, the works! Right there and then Jonah broke party rule 1 and 2.

So now were at the part of the story where the teacher walks Jonah to the car to meet my Mom and me.

"Debra, I wanted to let you know that Jonah made an announcement about his birthday party today in class" said the teacher.

"gasp" gasped my Mom.

"it would be helpful if you could have a talk with him about today, a lot of students who were not invited to the party, had their feelings hurt today." - Teacher

"will do." - Mom (I can almost guarantee that's not what my Mom said, again bare with me)

Were in the car now. I'm in the backseat choppy rainbow haircut and all, two years old. My Mom starts "Jonah, your teacher mentioned that you made an announcement about your birthday party today in class. She told me that a lot of students had their feelings hurt, knowing about the party, and knowing that they weren't invited. (something along the lines of:) Jonah it's not very nice to tell people about your party if they can't come, that's why we have you deliver or mail your invites. It'a not nice to this.... it's not nice to this.... blah blah blah"

Me from the car seat "Jonah, it's not nice to call people fucking assholes either!" Now I know what you're thinking, "what type of sailor child was I." Well I was just supporting my Mom, and my brother, on what is nice, and not nice in the world, so I guess I was a damn good sailor child! "fucking asshole" and knowing about birthday parties that you are not invited to, is definitely in the Not Nice section of life. And you know what, my Mom agreed, "that's not nice she said" and we rode home in silence.