How to Say Sorry

When you are five and you know you have made a poor choice it can be hard to fess up and admit your wrong doings. This is especially true when Mommy has just scolded you and asked you to think about what you did. How about you go quietly off and draw your Mom a picture. Present it to her and with your most precious smile you can say... "I made this for you Mommy" and just stand still a spell... for full effect.
Smile some more and say, "This is you and me at the park. We are having the best day!".

I have to hand it to him... he works very hard at redeeming himself and who could stay mad with such an adorable, transparent gesture. Not this Mommy! However... he is still accountable for his actions. And what did he do, you ask.... he gave his brother the finger. Yep. Now, Colin is smart enough to know that this is a way of telling him off. He does not know what it means. He does understand this is the same as swearing. When I asked him what would happen if I ever heard him swearing, he hung his head and said, "Let's talk about something different now." I asked him if his nice picture of him and Mommy was his way of trying to say sorry for swearing with his hands... and he said "Yes, so I took my hand and made it do something good." I accepted his apology and asked him to go and apologize to his brother too. After all of his hard thinking, I accepted the apology that sounded like this... "Aidan, I'm sorry you made me give you the finger."

And what about that picture... I am sure you knew that was us at the Park. With a great blue sky!