This is you

While shuttling the troops to gymnastics, I found a "crank it up loud" worthy song on the radio and indulged.  When the song ended, our children were crying.

"What happened?"

The 6 yr old piped up first through his tears, "She's being so mean to m--"

"NO I'M NOT!"

"Woa." I interjected. It was my subtle way of saying "Stop f'ing yelling!!!!"

"BUT I'M NOT!"

Another "Woa."  This time it stretched a little like such, "Wooooooaaaaaaa."

"MOM!"

"Seriously. Please stop yelling."  The need to clarify had become apparent.

"He started it by taking a cookie and saying, "This is---"

"No, I did not start it. You did."

"That is a lie!"

Can I get a  "Woa!"  
With a little staccato emphasis this time.

"Until you guys can stop crying and yelling and using strong words that will upset each other like 'liar' 'lying' etc., We can't sort this out. Here," I said passing back a broken piece off the interior of the car, "it's a Peace Part."

Side note---when our third child earns his "Peace Rose" from school we will keep it in the car. One upstairs, one downstairs, and one mobile unit. There will be f'ing peace all over this goddamn family.

And thus, the Peace Talks began...

"Jackson, you started making me upset by putting the animal crackers in his mouth and biting their heads and saying 'this is you.'"

A small hand stretches across the car to reach for the part.

"I'm not finished. And, I started to do it back to you to see how it made you feel. And then you kept doing it. So I kept doing it. But then you said, 'okay no more' but I didn't get to go one last time."

The hand extends out.

"I'm still not finished. And why did you not let me play Skylanders when we were at home, and you said I could be Cynder?"

The part is passed.

"First of all," began our 6 yr old, "wait Mom, did you just go through a red light?!"

"No, it was yellow when I entered the intersection, so it's okay."

"Oh. I just thought maybe you went through a red light."

"Jackson!" Our daughter cried out, "You are supposed to talk to me."

"You are not allowed to talk unless you are holding the rose," he corrected.

"It's NOT a rose," she said correcting the correction.

"Whatever. So, first of all, you were the first person to eat the cookie and say, "this is you."

"No. I wasn't!"

"You are not allowed to talk right now!"

I moderated a tad here..."Let's use quiet voices as we talk this out, please. And please wait until you are holding the rose."

"It's NOT a rose," they said in unison, finally agreeing on something.

"You know what I mean. We are almost to gymnastics, you guys might want to solve this."

He continued, "All I know is that you ate the head off the cookie first, and I wanted to do it one more time so it was fair."

The part was passed.

"I did not eat it first, you did, and I am just really sad by all the lying that happens in the world. It happens a lot at school. And I am not a liar. I speak truths. And I wish that people would just be kind and respect each other and stop making things up to hurt people's feelings. It would make every day so much better. But, I will always speak the truth."

Can I get an "Amen?"

"Yea, I like the truth too. And you can be Cynder when we get home."

The car came to a stop. "We're here! Hop out!"

"And then maybe we can play animals after Skylanders?" added our daughter.

"Yea, or even before if you want."

As they walked into gymnastics, like the car ride never even took place, I thought that perhaps the next UN meeting or gathering of Congress might have a chance if we just passed out animal crackers and started with looking over at Syria and maybe, while taking a bite saying, "This is you!"