Is it appropriate?

So I am sitting in my office when I get an email from a teacher discussing a student's interesting take on a gingerbread man...it soon arrives in my office and ...oh yes...interesting. Between the gingerbread man's legs is a very large, very straight pipe cleaner...hmmmm. So I call for the student to come to my office.He looks incredibly guilty when he walks in and sees his creation on my desk. I point to the offending pipe cleaner and ask him "What is this supposed to be?" He answers, as only a 1st grader can, "A weiner". I say, "Is that okay in school?" and he says...wait for it..."It is inappropriate"...there it is that word...INAPPROPRIATE!

When did we start using that word for everything that is unacceptable in our lives...and WHEN did we teach it to young children? Had I or anyone my age made that gingerbread man with a male member sticking out of it...the action would have been condemned as wrong...I can hear my mother..."You do not do things like that in school or out of school...it is just wrong"...A phrase I heard alot as a child... And I lived to know the difference between right and wrong and good and bad and STILL have a good self image about myself...My parents were never afraid to say it like it is...a model I followed with my own children...when they didn't follow the rules I told them...when they were wrong I told them...when they were bad I told them...when they finished their punishment I told them I loved, loved, loved them and knew they would never do it again...until the next time!

Why are we so afraid to be direct with our children...In my mind inappropriate means you really shouldn't do that, sweetheart...it means oh honey bunny, what were you thinking...it means lets' you and I think of a consequence so it never happens again like no cartoons for one hour tonight...wrong means you better NEVER do it again or you will NEVER get out of your bedroom.Just so you know, my brothers and I are out of our bedrooms and feeling good about ourselves...we loved our parents and listened to them as they guided us through life...did they do it gently when we were "inappropriate"...oh no...there was frustration, anger,lots of silence, and many many missed cartoon Saturday mornings... but mostly there was love.

Here are some Synonyms for inappropriate as defined by Webster and Roget: graceless, improper, inapt, incongruous, incorrect, indecorous, inept, infelicitous, unapt, unbecoming, unfit, unhappy, unseemly, unsuitable, wrong
Related Words inopportune, unfortunate, unseasonable, untimely; immaterial, irrelevant; incompatible, uncongenial, unharmonious; bad, naughty, sinful; blamable, blameworthy, censurable; banned, barred, disallowed; forbidden, interdicted, outlawed, prohibited, proscribed; awkward, gauche, ungraceful; unacceptable, unsatisfactory

So they go from unsuitable to forbidden...such a wide berth for defining one word...personally, I believe children love us more when their life has perameters and restrictions and they don't get to choose their own consequence...they feel how much we love them when we teach them the difference...but I gotta tell ya....that gingerbread man was HYSTERICAL!!