Paul and the Family

Lately Brian has started calling people names (mostly us and the kids, but occasionally his friends too) quite a bit. Admittedly they usually come out more funny than hurtful, but it bothers us a bit. For his particular favorite he has learned that “[some word]-head” can be used as a negative name. For instance, sometimes he’ll call us “turkey head” or “bonko head” or whatever happens to be the first thing that pops into his mind. Frequently he doesn’t even bother coming up with a new word and just says something like “stop it you heads.”

Tonight before supper Brian was having a bit of a tough time with this, and Kelli was trying to work with him to figure out what the consequence would be for name calling. Over the last couple of days we have started to notice that we, too, often call our children names. We don’t do it maliciously — it’s usually something like “honey bear” or “sweetheart” — nevertheless, Brian has noticed and started pointing out when we call our children something other than their given names. So while we were eating I made a joke about the fact that Brian had picked up name calling from us. The conversation went something like:

• Me (sarcastically): Brian, where did you learn to call people names? I’m sure I’ve never called you names like “honey bear” or “crazy kid.”
• Brian (in a grouchy tone): Stop that you name-caller!

How could I respond to a line like that? =)