What I learned, I learned in kindegarten...

This post is dedicated to my friend Kaarin.

You'll understand why after reading on.

Let's go back a few years to your 5 year old birthday party.

What were you most excited about?  Toys, games, new pens and butcher paper...heck no, it was going to kindergarten.

Remember feeling the nerves - at the time you might of thought you had the stomach flu.  It was a time of preparing for new faces, a new teacher, recess, giggles, smiles.  

But were you were prepared to learn about biting, pushing, and name calling? Kids now days get kicked out of school (pre-school and day care too) for biting.  But think about it.  That was a lesson.  

1. Go to the dentist - "bite down"

2. An apple a day keeps the doctor away - "bite into a juicy apple"

3. Can't wait to fix a mouth watering (tofu) steak - "take a bite out of that"

So, really, Kaarin, the phone calls you get regarding your daughter biting and having to pick her up from school is her way of saying, "hello, I am advanced...I know how to bite."

Now, there is one thing you can say to her, "honey, we don't bite humans, that's cannibalism - and that is BAD."  Moving on.

Next lesson: pushing or for most boys it was shoving. I can think of three examples where this works really well...

Seinfeld - enter Elaine, "get out of here" and she shoves her best friends, out of love of course

December 26 (after Christmas sales) - we get the best deals when we wait in line pushing people at stores like Target, WalMart and Best Buy. In fact, the pushier you are the, the better deals you get.  They reinforce it with early bird specials.

Rock concerts - it's the mosh pit mentality, to get closer to the experience, you push your way (along with everyone else) to the front of the stage.

And the final lesson:  name calling

Everyone has a name.  Some just have better names than others and are easy marks for a few antics.  I remember a fond memory of a child named, Billy Stinkie.

You can't help but love, "stinky"  and we use it now in everyday conversation,"the garbage is stinky."  Name calling is really another word for rhetoric and propaganda.  And, where would our lives be without that?

Finally, the obvious items we learned can be taken and used everyday to make us stronger  and loving human beings.  Consider these:

• Share
• Play
• Don't hit people
• Put things back where you found them
• Clean up your own mess
• Don't take things that aren't yours
• Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody
• Wash your hands before you eat
• Flush (and then wash your hands...really) :)
• Nap
• Look and listen
• Hold hands and stick together 

Ahhh. Kindergarten