Innocence shattered...

So I have decided I am gonna try to put at least one thing on this blog daily, even if it is just a one line quote or something... but today, I have something kind of sad...

So Kelly calls me as I am going to pick up a prescription for our 9 year old son, Connor, and says, "Well, Connor learned the hard way not to stick his middle finger out today." Turns out he was standing in line for something at school, and a kid next to him said something about something having wet paint on it. Connor wiped on it with his middle finger - yes, the bird finger - and held it up to the boy and said, "See? That paint isn't wet." Well, when this kid saw the middle finger held up in front of him, he evidently freaked out. He called the teacher over to them and told her Connor flipped him off. Connor has no clue about "the bird" - he is the most loving, caring, soft-hearted, and generally innocent boy I know - and freaked out likewise because he had no clue why he was getting in so much trouble. His teacher started lambasting him about how inappropriate and rude his behavior was and that he should never do that again and so on and so forth. Connor was trying his best to explain what happened but his teacher kept interrupting him and never let him speak or explain.

Poor Connor comes home with the dreaded "red note" from his teacher to Kel and me telling us that he should be "taught how inappropriate his behavior was" or some such garbage. He asks Kelly if she knows what is so bad about the middle finger, and playing dumb she says, "No Connor, what is so bad about the middle finger?" He says, "See?! You don't know either!" He told Kelly, "She wouldn't let me explain! I tried to tell her the only reason I used that finger was because of the wart on my other finger." See, he has this little seed wart on his pointing finger and is embarrassed by it. Further, Connor tends to use his middle finger a lot in pointing, like when he is reading and following the words in his book, and so forth.

So here's this poor innocent kid who does something innocent. But because of our jaded and antisocial and post-Columbine society, it is assumed that he is being aggressive and harassing when that couldn't be further from the truth!

Chaps my hide something fierce I tell ya!

Needless to say, Kelly called Connor's teacher immediately and tried to explain. But his teacher maintained her annoyed tone and basically told us that we need to do a better job in preparing our children for this crappy, antisocial, and harassing society we live in. Thank you for the advice, Ms. Latimore. But I think I would like for my innocent child to remain innocent as long as he can. Society is going to taint him soon enough.

While I was at the pharmacy picking up his prescription, I bought Connor some pads to help get rid of that wart.

Maybe that kid and Ms. Latimore will wake up with some tomorrow.