Something Nice

Uncle Kevin was eating dinner with us tonight, and as we were sitting down for dinner, Zander said something rude or mean to his brother. My first response was to tell Zander to apologize to his brother. As Zander is saying "I'm sorry" to Connor, inspiration hits me. I then tell Zander to say one thing nice about his brother. At this point several things happen at once: Lee begins to laugh, I turn my head to give Lee a dirty look for laughing while I am trying to discipline our child, and Zander says to Connor, "You have pretty eyes." At this point, both Lee and Kevin are laughing even more. I turn back to look at Zander and try to figure out why he would say such a thing. Uncle Kevin speaks up and explains that he told Zander what to say. Not wanting the teaching moment completely ruined, I tell Zander that he has to say one nice thing about his brother that he thought up himself. He thought about if for a while and after a little prompting he comes up with, "Connor you make me laugh." Close enough for what I had in mind. Now I turn to Lee and ask why exactly he had to laugh during this whole event, to which he responds, "My Mom used to make me do the same thing, and it was awful hard to come up with something nice." Kevin confesses to much of the same. I guess some things never change.