"Cough Cough Fat Ass!"

Sometimes, you wonder if your kids are actually hearing what you're telling them.

I don't mean the 'Clean that pigsty of a room!', or 'Turn your music down so I can think!' statements.  I mean the life lessons we try to teach them.

Tell the truth, be kind to people, be a good person.  Those are the things I want them to hear.

And then, there are some days when you just sit back, smile, and think ... 'Yeah ... they get it.'

A few days ago, Adam was walking up the stairs at school when he passed a girl on her way down.  He knows the girl. She is a couple of years older than him so they don't 'hang out', but he knows her to talk to her.

After he had passed her, almost a flight of stairs between them, he noticed another boy making his way up the steps behind him.

When the other boy passed the girl, he coughed into his hand and said, 'Fat ass'.

Now, I have to stop here for a second, and tell you just how much that broke my heart to hear my boy tell me that, to hear that kids are so cruel to each other, for absolutely NO reason. 

What did this girl do to deserve that comment?  NOTHING!  She was simply walking down the stairs, minding her own business.

Does that boy have ANY idea how his words must have cut through that sweet girl? And yes, I know her, she's a sweet girl.

This kind of thing makes me SO angry because it's completely uncalled for and just ... MEAN.

For all of society's talk on ending bullying, I can tell you it's alive and well folks, and thriving in our schools.

My own kid is far from perfect.  He makes mistakes, and sometimes he makes bad choices, but that day, in that moment, he did something I was very proud of.

When Adam heard what the other boy said, he leaned over the railing of the stairs, and yelled down, 'HEY!  Shut the fuck up!!!!'

YEAH!  GO ADAM!!!!

OK, so maybe the language wasn't a mother's proudest moment.  A different choice of words would have been more appropriate, however ... we're talking teenage boys. He was speaking the other boy's language and Adam was making sure he got his point across.

I'm VERY proud of what he did, and yes, even how he said it.  There was no guessing in that statement.  He said what he meant and he meant what he said.

I don't know if the girl heard what Adam said.  Part of me hopes she did, if only so she knows that there ARE people who will stand up for her.  

But, that's the sad part, isn't it? 

She shouldn't NEED to have anyone standing up for her, because statements like 'cough cough fat ass' should NOT be made in the first place.

But that's the society we live in, unfortunately.

There's always going to be mean people who say hurtful things.  I'm just VERY happy that in that moment, my boy spoke up against one of them.

Yeah ... sometimes, they get it.


Now, if I could just get him to mow the damn lawn!

K.