I was watching Joel Osteen the other night and he was talking about people that talk bad about you basically.  That you should learn to ignore them.  A bit easier said than done.  But a lesson nonetheless.  Something to think about and something to work on.  I am trying and I know that with each day it will get easier.  But I've noticed that it doesn't stop with just me.  You don't realize that things like that effect pretty much everyone that you know but I learned today that its effecting the kids.  All three of them and the conflict is that its with family members.  I know that kids have "drama" and its expected with their ages but this is with family and well it kinda upsets me.  But it makes me realize that in order for them to be able to overlook what people say that I have to set the example, which makes my lesson a bit accelerated.  I need to lead by example.

Anthony hasnt gone to his dad's house in about a month.  The thing with Anthony is that he is different.  He doesnt have many friends and he is more than fine with that.  I encourage socialization but his idea of socialization is talking to some kids on his way home from the bus stop.  He doesn't want to invite anyone over and he doesn't always want to seek someone else to play with outside either.  Now he does play with other children but its not often.  He is definitely not a social butterfly but he is a happy kid and as long he is happy I see no reason to encourage change.  The reason that he has not gone to his dad's house is because his grandmother has apparently been making comments to him about eating at the house and drinking pop, etc. and although these things aren't true it bothers him that she says these things.  Brittney and Anthony are very close so I brought her into the conversation and explained to her what his reasons were and she put on her little 17 yr old attitude and was like well she can say whatever she wants but dad buys the food so I don't care what she says.  I replied that he does though.  She said, well just ignore her.  So I looked at her and said, you know how your sister says things to you and I tell you to ignore her and you say you can't, which she agreed.  Well same thing.  Brittney no longer had an answer for him.  Neither did I.

So in order to get the answer I need to reflect.  I need to figure it out so that I can teach my children that some things people say to you just need to be overlooked.  If they see these things bother me, they will be bothered as well.

Lesson in the making.