today i had a child swear. he tends to do this often. and every time it happens he is put on time out, or the like. and it obviously is not working. i decided it was time to take a different approach. maybe he didn't understand why he couldn't swear. i asked him "why do you think we shouldn't swear or say bad words". he responded "because then you will get in trouble". well that may be true, but he needed a better answer if he was going to stop swearing. i thought about what people told me when i was a child. -you can't swear because we can't take God's name in vain-or other lines connected to religion. thinking about it i knew i couldn't tell him anything like i heard. so here i was in my office with a 6 year old and i am asking myself, you know what i don't know why we can't swear...i looked at him...i came to a conclusion. "are you a human?" he smiled "yes" i kept going "me too. we are not cats or dogs or fish. (to which he let me know that he really likes cats). and it is our job as a human to try to make all other humans as happy as we can. we should make people laugh and smile. when we say bad words or call people names does that make people happy or smile?" he said, "nope, it makes them angry and mad" "exactly, and we don't want to make people angry...but happy. And i know that you are really good at making people laugh...i think you should work on that, instead of making people mad or sad" this whole time his eyes have been wandering around my office. i'm not sure if this has just been another teaching moment of mine that has gone in one ear and out the other. i'm assuming that it is-most of them are. i wrapped up the talk by saying "ok?" he looked at me and said "stacey you know why a bus is inside a car?" i smile, "no" he finishes..."because it wants to eat a cellphone" we both laugh. he made me happy. lesson learned.