Love Thy Neighbor

I was recently told about an issue that my 8 year old step-brother is having with a friend and it shocked me and made me very upset and sad for him and his friend. I was told that Garrett (my step-brother) was no longer able to go inside his friend’s house because the parents of his friend thought that he came from a weird family. It has nothing to do with Garrett’s character. If you meet him you would realize that he is one of the nicest and caring little boys ever. This family that banned my step-brother is a very active member of our LDS ward. So my thoughts on this is, aren't we taught to love thy neighbor, to not judge, to forgive...ect. To make matters worse my dad and step-mom's reply to this is, well Garrett your friend is not allowed in are home either. After my dad told me this I had no reply because the only thing I could say would surely start an argument. Why? Why would you do that? The only person here that is being grown up about the situation is Garrett and his friend and they are 8 years old. That's what I wanted to say but didn't to avoid an argument and It’s not my place to intrude on their family issues. I just hope someone realizes they are being an idiot.

Door Locks

Having a lock on bedroom doors, great for when I was a teenager. If I was mad at a sibling I could lock myself in my bedroom and make nasty comments to them as they got a bobby pin and tried to unlock the door. This was really fun to me. I did manage to get so much anger out of them that I had my door kicked in once and several times had them unscrew the door knob. But on the other hand they did the same to me. So I also tried the whole kicking in the door thing. Didn't work so well I just put a hole straight threw the door, which is still there to this day. This is all fun and games for us as teenagers but when my almost 2 year old son loves to push button, turn and twist things but still can't turn a door handle, probably a lock on the bedroom isn't the best idea. Since I'm living at my dad's house Bridger's room was once my little sister’s room. And my dad was so kind to put locks on all the bedroom doors so other siblings wouldn’t come in and bother us. Well today Bridger started throwing toys at me like normal and as punishment I put him in his room for timeout. When timeout is over I went to his room to let him out. Come to find out, Bridger had locked himself in his room. I had forgotten that he had a lock on his door. So I yell inside to Bridger to turn the handle but no luck. He doesn't quite understand what I'm talking about. So, I got a bobby pin and hanger and attempted to unlock the door. Meanwhile Bridger is in his room laughing and having a great time with he's toys. This brings up a whole lot of memories of my teenage years, but I use to be a pro at unlocking these doors and I now cannot seem to remember how to. Lucky my dad is right up stairs to come and help me out. After 30mins with a bobby pin and hanger we give up and took off the door knob. Bridger is finally free, not that he cared he was having fun in his room. But I have now witnessed my future with teenagers if I put locks on their doors. I will ground them to their room and they will laugh at me as I try to unlock there door. Moral of this story is, I'm not putting locks on my kid’s doors unless it's me locking them in their room.