Teach Your Kids

Parents, teach your kids to eat their broccoli. 

Teach your kids not to punch. 

Teach your kids to clean their room. 

Teach your kids to love themselves and others. 

But parents, also teach your kids that words hurt. 

Doctor says he’ll never be able to walk. 

He’ll never be able to talk. 

He’ll never be able to communicate with his peers. 

He’ll never play on his elementary school soccer team. 

But through his parents love,

he’ll learn to cannonball through the the parts of the world that he thought were fenced off.

He grew up, 

He made friends

He learned how to long for the day that he might be able to play soccer with his friends. 

To run as fast as them and to laugh as much as them

So, he grew. 

All in his own, he grew.

“Mommy, today at school these kids said retarded.

Am I retarded?”

The tears were rolling

Hearts were breaking in the car on the drive home from school.

A year later he grew a little more. 

He learned how to push himself.

How to grow as an individual.

That same year he took his first steps on the beach. 

He had sand between his toes for the first time as he inhaled the salty air. 

Everything was perfect.

He built up the courage he never knew he had. 

He learned to walk and talk effectively but still, with the sun lowering into the sea and the waves washing up closer to his feet, he turned around with a worried look 

“Mom, am I still retarded?” 

So parents, teach your kids to eat their broccoli. 

Teach your kids not to punch. 

Teach your kids to clean their room.

But also, parents. 

Teach your kids to not to say retarded

Because no parent should have to cradle their sobbing child because your kid thought the words retarded and stupid were equals.