It was only a week and a half ago when my son was excited to show me a cut on his finger in the most hilarious way possible...
"HEY DADA, look at my cut"
to which his presentation, looked a little something like this...
It was so amusing yet so shocking to see him doing this crazy ass gesture towards me. I had to think about it for a moment then realized, he was not only trying to be funny but he had an idea what the gesture actually meant.
Honestly, I was biting the bottom of my lip trying not to laugh but I worked past the urge and questioned him why he just flicked me off.
He insisted he didn't do anything and of course got very scared that he was in trouble. We ended up explaining to him what the "middle finger" actually meant and asked him to explain where he learned it from.
"I don't know"
Little did his Momma know.. the "back story" and I cringed at my bad choice that day. Could he have picked this up from me? I struggled with the answer to this question but reminded myself it was never a dish I served with a plate of extreme sarcasm such as MR BATMAN from above.
After finally convincing him that we weren't mad at him.. he finally admitted that he picked it up from a friend of his in class. This friend supposedly got in trouble by some other snitch of a classmate who told the teacher, what he was doing.
By the end of the night he understood it was a horrible gesture, very disrespectful and assured us he wouldn't do that to anybody.
"Have A Good Weekend..."
"Oh, Wait..."
"We had a little accident in class today... Ethan had a little error in judgement trying to be silly with the bad finger, today"
I sighed at the news.. a little defeated, I responded..
"wow, greeeeaaaat... we just had a talk about this "finger" situation. I'll talk to him when we get home..."
She proceeded to explain that it was very out of character of him to act so foolishly and that it was something she felt confident he wouldn't do again.
What she didn't know was the level of shame and guilt I already felt in using this gesture around my son and me encouraging him to make people laugh were probably both factors that helped him make such a decision.
I've felt a bit guilty since yesterday evening.. maybe more then I did last week, when this situation first became an issue. I now know as a father, I need to fight the urge to be impulsive and maintain my composure in front of my son.
This is a lesson I learned and because of that, I couldn't be angry at him but I did express my disappointment in that we just talked about how wrong of a gesture it was.
Till Next Time... Adios Amigos
