Know Better

I’m having a casual conversation with parents that I don’t know very well. This is the point where you let slip some of your parental foibles and see precisely where they land on the recipients’ spectrum of normalcy. For instance, they might self-diclose that their children are impeccably behaved when dropped off at a friend’s home, and you might imply that you fear for your friends when you do the same. You are using humor to illuminate that while your kids are incredibly adorable, they may be less than perfect in decorum or behavior. Your hope is that the other parents will admit the same for their kids (at least a little). Let me tell you it’s a real bummer when you are the only one sharing a horror story and the faces meeting your gaze are blank with incomprehension. It also doesn’t help when you hear the phrase, “My kids would know better than to act up,” or “my kids were taught better than that,” in response to said horror story.

I self-disclosed that Full Speed had an unfortunate use of words when referencing his visiting cousins a while back. “Do you have any problems with bad language from your kids?” is my curious inquiry.

“My kids know better than to use a bad word, and they were taught better than that,” is the response.

Are you getting the same feeling I had? That the implication is that my kids don’t know better and certainly weren’t taught better.

I would try to draw the same conclusion but apparently I don’t know any better.