Being The Bigger Man

Our 12 year old son made me so proud yesterday evening. On the way to kickboxing (we do most of our ‘chats’ in the car these days!) he said how it had been really frustrating (his word, but he probably got from me in the first place) at school. Some kids had been teasing him about something or other.

Now, we need to put into context that our 12 year old often struggles to contain his emotions, be it excitement or anger, frustration or joy. We are working on it, talking about it as often as possible without nagging (!) and explaining why we can’t always have an outburst.

Anyway, yesterday he went on to say that even though a couple of the boys kept teasing him, he decided to ‘be the bigger man!’ And then he repeated it, ‘So you see, Mum, I am the bigger man.’ I swear he seemed two inches taller and his back straighter as he said it, clearly (and rightly so) proud of his own self-control. With enough of those experiences, he will soon have mastered the art completely. Parenting feels so good today.