Justification Makes Sense to Someone

“Mason, stop! Come here. It’s your birthday, you have to listen to me!”

What the fuck? How does that make sense to my 5 year old?  I have no idea. But, somehow he justifies it. He bosses his brother around daily making up rules to games and then changing them on a dime. Then, abuses Mason when things don’t go his way or according to his rules. I listen to this craziness wondering at what point I should step in and correct this behavior. So many times, I want to just let nature happen. Survival of the fittest. But, I know that my little one can’t hold his own just yet. Maybe it’s because I am the youngest, or maybe it’s because I am so sick of my older son bullying my baby, but I long for the day that my youngest kicks the shit out of his older brother. Do other moms hope for that same day to arrive in their homes? Instead, I go in after a few minutes. I do the “right” thing. I help them sort it out. I help them make better choices.

Human nature is a funny thing. We all justify things, and usually to our benefit. Right? We walk through life, actually most of us run with our heads down or staring at some piece of technology. We make decisions this way. It’s asinine. Then, regardless of whether the decisions are right or wrong, we justify them. Ha! Better yet, we justify our children’s actions, especially the wrong ones. Well, I work hard not to do this. I take every opportunity possible to show my kids their poor choices and how to make better ones. But, I am so far from perfect it’s scary. With that being said though, there is nothing more irritating than a mom who allows her child to make a stupid; blatantly wrong choice. You can just see the trajectory of that child’s life going straight into the toilet. Listen, being a parent is the toughest job out there and it’s best not to judge someone else but rather focus on oneself and how we can do better ourselves, but come on. Don’t we all know at least one clown who really needs parenting classes? See, how I justified that name calling judgment? It was easy. It has always been easy for me to give in to the negative despite being innately sweet. I want to turn over a new leaf. A positive one. That might be a challenge for me. I’d better work on that starting now…