Violence and our kids

This morning started off interesting...Zoe was annoying her brother (not unusual) and I hear from their room, "I'm gonna kill you!"  Even though I'm an only child, I know siblings say things like this to each other and don't actually mean it.  But a five year old screaming it at his 3 year old sister?  NOT acceptable.  I went straight in there and sat him down with me on his bed.  He says with tears brimming, "do you know why I'm crying?  Because Zoe makes me mad!  I hate the screaming!"  I respond, "do you know why I'm crying?  Because you said you want to kill your sister."  He looks at me with wide eyes and realizes that what he said was not okay.  I talked to him about how I get really angry when she screams too, it makes me crazy!  I recognized that she annoys him a lot and makes him mad but no matter what, he can't say things like that because it's very serious.  Most of the time those two are having a blast together, making up games and pretending to be Jedi's or something, so I'm not too worried.  Those words though, whether he meant them or not, pierced my heart and made me start thinking.  Where would he get that from?  Well, I didn't have to think too long.  Violence and hate are all around us.  I think Norm and I do a pretty good job at judging what is appropriate for them to watch.  We were appalled at the amount of small kids in the theater when the two of us went to see Iron Man 3.  Admittedly they have watched Star Wars, which is violent and some others that were probably not appropriate for their age.  Kieren has played some video games that I think he is not ready for, so that's going to change for sure.  Everyone has different standards when it comes to what they watch or allow their kids to watch, I'm not trying to start a heated debate...just think we should all think about this a little more.  I mean, I don't even turn the news on anymore because when I do there's another shooting or someone killing someone.  We live in a messed up world.  We need a lot more love and a lot less hate and violence.  When someone as pure and tenderhearted as my precious son says something like this, something must be wrong.

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