Thursday, December 9, 2010

Sign language..."you're #1", or not!

Sitting at my desk yesterday, getting a lot of work accomplished for a Wednesday, and I see the dreaded email appear in my inbox.  The principal at my son's elementary school just wanted to let me know that JP had been using a sort of sign language in the lunchroom that they consider inappropriate.  He was apparently trying to tell his friends that they are #1 in his book, only he was using the wrong finger.  That's right, the kid gave the entire elementary lunch room, including a few of his "favorite" (or not) teachers the bird!!  WTH!!!  (However, when asked what it meant, he could not tell them...he had no idea what he was doing other than waving around a finger for all to see.)

Several different trains of though suddenly enter my brain.  1) Oh shit, how am I going to address this one.  2) Where the phuck did he learn about the middle finger.  3) Mother F-er, I've now got to forward this information on to my ex husband...get ready for WW6.  4) Laughter!...I mean come on, it's a 7+ year old giving the middle finger, at least we've graduated from poop humor.  5) I totally remember the day I discovered the middle finger in elementary school...we thought it was so cool, hard to believe my little boy is growing up so fast.  6) At least he seems to have no idea what it means.  7) see number 1. 

I know, I know...I'm about as potty mouthed as they come, so he must have picked it up at home, right?!  I actually disagree.  The irony here is that for as much as I let my sailor mouth fly on here, I turn my filter on high alert whenever my boy is arround.  And when it comes to the bird, I actually find it pretty generic and unimaginative myself, I prefer to go with the Friends backwards double fist bump...much more creative in my opinion.  (If you don't know what Friends is, then you're too young to be reading this blog.)  Plus, I'm a single girl so meeting people by giving the bird...not the best impression I want to make.  You never really know who is in that car that just cut you off now do you?!?!  Nope...you just never know, it could be a great friend who you just haven't had the opportunity to meet yet (even if they are texting and driving while trying not to spill their morning Starbucks...mmmm, Starbucks!...here's a tip for anyone interested, I loves me some Starbucks, just sayin' :)). 

So, how does a PT single mom handle this one?!?!  Crap!  I have no idea...I'm learning this shit on the fly half the time.  Parenting in my experience so far is pretty much a trial by fire adventure.  I mean I'm a PT single mom to a 7+ year old boy.  I've heard everyone say "boys will be boys", but I've never been a boy so I can't fully relate. 

In the end I've decided to not make a big deal out of it.  (You can disagree with me all you want, but this is how I've chosen to handle it.)  One look at his face and the tears that welled up in his eyes when I asked simply "so how was lunch today" and I knew he got it.  In the car on the way home from school we talked about how it is one of the meanest things you can say to someone in sign language and what it means when we hurt other peoples feelings.  Then, by the time we got home six blocks later, the discussion was over and we were moving on to what's for dinner.  I'm hoping that by not making a big deal out of this time around, it will become less of a temptation because it won't be seen as "forbidden", just really really mean, and JP hates when people are mean or unfair (the ADHD in him makes him obsessed with being fair and following the rules). 

I hope I've done the right thing here, but I really don't know.  Only time will tell.  Luckily, the more we stumble along this PT single parent path together the more we learn about each other, and the better equipped I become to handle these situations as they come up.  I may not be the perfect mom all the time, but I'm learning that that's ok.  Perfect moms are boring, and I am anything but. 

No comments:

Post a Comment