Use Your (Kind) Words. Period. The end.

Now, Fans, we have to admit to you that Mrs. Dvorak also noted that Joe does not always use his kinds words and actions.  (These glimpses into his Walter Mitty life can be fascinating--and cringe-inducing.)  She hastened to add that on most days, he did and when he did not, he accepted responsibility for what he said or did.  So she was not overly concerned about his occasional lapses.  But it is true that of late, he's been rocking the big kid attitude and what all, especially with Birdie.  Last week, Julie was busy driving when all hell broke loose in the backseat because, as she discovered, Joe had covered his ears so he wouldn't have to listen to Clara "repeat herself over AND OVER!!!!!"  Julie noted--once she'd ordered Joe to take his hands off his ears "BECAUSE THIS WAS HIS MOTHER SPEAKING TO HIM"--that Clara might be repeating herself because he was not responding which makes it difficult for others to understand if he's heard them and that, in any case, what he was doing was rude so he wasn't to do it, period.  The end.*  Then there was the moment, also last week, when Joe told Clara she was being a brat.  (Clara, for the record, retorted: "I not a brat!  I a GIRL!")  The parenting lesson we have learned here is that it's no longer enough, right, to say "Use your words."  No, now words needs a modifier: "Use your kind words."  It feels like a given, right, Fans?  But it's not.  Turns out, you never have to stop using your kind words.

*As a sidebar, Joe has, by now, picked up on a number of our expressions and mannerisms, and chief among them are saying "Period.  The end."  We whip it out on him, and Clara, and he whips it out on poor Clara who is getting it from three people and probably wants to tell us all to insert a comma, and take a breath.