"Sticks and Stones"

Remember the childhood chant, “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me”? In reality, words can wound a child for life. The poet Longfellow wrote, “A torn jacket is soon mended; but hard words bruise the heart of a child.”

I was disturbed when I watched a recent ABC news program with journalist Diane Sawyer. In the program, irate parents called their daughter, “a f---- bitch.” Not only was this behavior immature and verbally abusive, but it added to – rather than diffused – the tension in the home. Additionally, kids will rise – or fall – to the label given them.

Is your child a brat, loud mouth, liar, tramp or a helper, good thinker, problem-solver, kind person? In your daily discipline, what you call your child is what you’ll get . . .eventually.

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