Golden Rule Gone Wild

This whole Golden Rule training I’ve been working on with my boys is getting out of control.


You are no doubt familiar with the classic proverb known as The Golden Rule, “Do unto others as you would have them do to you.”  I thought this would be a fairly simple and helpful concept for our three and four year old boys to grasp but after the last few months of Golden Rule Gone Wild, I have some regrets.


Here’s an example of some common mishandlings of the Golden Rule in our home on a daily basis these days, 


“Jude, how would YOU like if someone flushed when you were going peepee?  Would you like that done to YOU!?”  


“Bro, how would you like if someone did to you what you did to you?”  


“Gid, don’t do that because if someone does it to you, would you like it to do too?”  


And my favorite so far, “Judah!!  Don’t do that to me or I will do it back to you!!”

Is there a way to unteach something to children!?  Because I’m pretty fed up with the Golden Rule these days!  


The truth is though, no matter how much it goes through the word blender before the boys spit it back out, truth is truth and I’m going to keep on dishing it up!  That is one of our joys and sometimes chores as parents, to present truth to our children.  What they do with it (or their own interpretations of it!) may need a little tweaking now and then but when a seed of truth begins to grow in their heart at an early age, something beautiful grows out of it.  


Hopefully children who are taught absolute truths will stand for something so they won’t fall for anything.  Or maybe they’ll think they should fall for something so they don’t stand for anything…or stand up if they are falling…or something falling will hit them if they stand still too long…


Yeah, you get the idea.