That call was ...$$^##

Even if you are not a Cowboys' fan, or even if you don't like football, unless you lived in a vacuum you probably heard about "that" call.  Rather, the call that was reversed, overturned.  Not being a football expert, I don't understand the call, the reversal or even the hub bub over it.  Yes, there are those who think it cost Dallas the game, then there are those that say it shouldn't have come down to one call.  I really am not concerned about that, what I am concerned about is....you guessed it...the modeling.  Now before you sound like my kids and say, oh mom it's just football not school! hear me out.

I have written about the power of modeling.  We all have tales of our children doing something that we know we have modeled, intentionally or not.  I hear people yelling at the television and when calls don't go the way we want them to - we yell, That call was crap!  That ref is blind.   That ref is being paid off by.... Even more upsetting is when we carry that type of talk to friends, acquaintances who cheer for the opposite team.  Then we maturely(or not) call everyone idiots, stupid and my all time favorite, trolls! Wasn't it just the week before the same fans who felt jilted yesterday were calling another team out for being upset about their bad call.  But see that was okay because the earlier call went  in my favor. Yesterday's call went against me and my team.

When my son was in high school he got a suspension for telling a teacher a grade was bull crap.  Yea, proud mother moment.  I don't say that, his father doesn't say that but his baseball coach did.  We all adored his coach.  However, when a call didn't go the way he thought it should he would tell the umpire what he thought about the call.  The power of modeling!  I didn't think my son would adopt that behavior.  My son did go and apologize and it did lend itself to a discussion of respect and things we do not say.  But again, the power of modeling.

As hard as it is, forward to your child in preschool or other grades.  What we are modeling is calling 'crap' when things don't go our way.  When we don't get the answer we want, or think we deserve we yell and scream and call the other side idiots or trolls.  Teachers complain about children doing that all the time. They say kids need to accept when things don't go their way.  Interestingly, teachers behave that way too sometimes.  But how can we expect children to accept a call or an answer or decision they don't like when we adults we don't?

Man, that power of modeling is hard to remember.   Most children will do as we do rather than do as we say.  Ouch!