Make America Respectful Again!

November 9th.  We made it! I don't know about you but after tapping out of the late night coverage of the presidential election and waking up to the results, I am ready for a news fast.  I think I mostly feel relieved even though my candidate did not prevail.  I tried to restrain from crying at 4 am when I rolled over, squinted at my iphone and saw the results.  At this point all I could do was breathe, hope for the best and strive to instill in my children that no matter what, we respect the office of the President.  That's right, even though I don't agree with him or his approach to ahem...communication, or his treatment of women, I do believe that we must come together as a country, and just get along.  RKR! Imagine if every candidate just heard this mantra every day.  On my mission to spread RKR (Respect Kindness, Responsibility), I often would find myself wondering what happened to these three things along the way.  What if my Grandfather were here to hear the vitriol and hatred spewing from both sides.  What happened to Respect?  I believe like all change, it must start from within.  It has to start with me.  This morning, the family was moving forward on auto-pilot.  Wake, dress, scrambled eggs.  When all of a sudden my son was asked a question involving equipment for an after school activity.  Before he even had a chance to answer my husband, I invoked a memory of last week when he struggled and failed to get said equipment together.  This was the shot over the bow so to speak.  Why did I do that? Anger is not great for breakfast.  Respect would have tasted better.  And I mean respect from me.  Why didn't I just keep my mouth shut, let him answer his dad and let consequences do their thing? Needless to say my son did react soundly with lots of disrespect, and as unacceptable as it was, there was no denying, I started this.  So, with the help of a yoga class and some introspection, I will try to learn from this and re-instill my need to show respect, even when I feel snarky and shortchanged; even when I don't want to be nice.  Even when I don't like who was elected President of the United States. Respect must prevail- not agreement or succumbing to something I don't believe in.  Just plain respect.  You worked hard, won the presidency, I am sad, distraught and terribly disappointed, but I can still show respect for this office and it's holder.   So may the RKR forces be with me as I experience some type of reconciliation with my son, and as I continue on the quest for Respect.  After all, if I can't model the behavior, how can I expect it? Parenting is so hard.  Have I mentioned that before? I think YES.