The Five-Year-Old Test

Something happened at my kids’ sports tonight that really made me pause.

A parent yelled something sarcastic about a kid’s missed play — the kind of comment people sometimes say jokingly, but it’s still negative. Immediately after, a five-year-old spectator repeated the exact same comment.

And suddenly everyone froze.

Because hearing those same words come out of a five-year-old’s mouth made it sound completely ridiculous. Adults around almost jumped in to stop the kid because it felt so inappropriate hearing a child say it.

But the reality was — the child was just repeating what an adult had said moments before.

If hearing a five-year-old repeat it would make you uncomfortable… it might be worth reconsidering saying it ourselves.

I’m not saying this to be preachy. I am fully capable of muttering something under my breath at a sporting event that I would not want repeated by a kindergartner. We all are.

But it was one of those moments that just made it so clear. Kids are absorbing everything. The tone, the language, the emotional temperature of the adults around them.

And that doesn’t mean we have to be perfect. It just means it’s worth noticing. Because what kids hear becomes what kids say — and eventually, what kids believe about how people treat each other.