My children are growing up. We’ve been in this same stage of infancy, toddlers, and small children for so long it suddenly snuck up on me. We haven’t yet dealt with what one friend described as ‘teenage angst’, but things are changing. It’s fun and scary all at the same time.

Ellie decided she desperately needed to try my glass of milk the other night. I helped her, but still, she dribbled down her chin and onto her shirt. Feeling entirely lazy, I used the sleeve of my already-dirty cardigan and wiped her face and shirt.

Liberty watched. And then.

“Now we don’t just have one dirty shirt. We have two!”

She was right. She said it in jest. And she sounded just like me.

It got me thinking. The words I say to them are forming them. They won’t turn out just like me – thank God. But they are learning their worldview from how I perceive the world. They are learning their speech from how I speak to them. They are learning cause and effect firsthand.

And they are learning a sarcasm.

Now, I’m not prone to criticize sarcasm. I even enjoy it. It rather helps me see life as funny and keeps me out of the insane asylum. I don’t mind if my kids use it, provided they are respectful and truthful and not hurtful. But. It still was sobering to hear. I knew she learned it from me.

When my dear daughter found the courage… and a bit of sass… to not take no for an answer but implore me further regarding something she apparently desperately wanted, it was surprising. We’ve lived in the world of no means no for so long, it’s almost fun to consider a world of reason and opinion. (You know. Beyond the three year old. He’s got opinion in spades. Reason… not so much.)

Here’s to taking a deep breath for the next stage. To speaking truth in love. And using napkins. Because then I only have one shirt and a napkin to wash instead. That’s better, I’m told.