what did you call me?

Today at lunch time, the boys asked me if they could have a cookie. I said no and Truett immediately demanded to know why. Before I could even take a breath to explain, Jem answered him by saying, "Because Mommy's a dummy."
I'm not sure what my face looked like when I turned towards him but it must have been pretty bad because he was already trying to back away from me before I even started reaching for him. I pulled him out of his seat and sent him upstairs to his room to give myself time to calm down.
When I talked to him later, he didn't even remember what he had said. He told me he had called me silly or maybe stinky and I realized that he had probably heard it somewhere, school or tv, and didn't really understand what it meant. He knew enough to realize that it was unkind and we talked about how it hurt my feelings.
In reality, it caught me off guard and made me angry. It is hard to do so much, to try so hard, and to hear something like that. And I'm a little worried too because I'm sure worse things are coming. I can only hope that I am raising my kids to be kind and to consider their words. I can only hope that I can let those comments roll off my back and remember what it is like to be a kid and to disagree with your parents' decisions and that I can offer them grace even as I do my best to make sure it doesn't happen again.

photo by: drbexl  http://www.flickr.com/photos/drbexl-/4298144089/