I whole heartedly agree! In fact, with our kids we didn't allow the "S" words in the house: shut up, sorry, and stupid. Shut up and stupid because they are harsh and corrosive and sorry for two reasons. One was, it's just too darn easy. "You were supposed to take out the garbage, what happened?" "Oh, sorry!" ...as if that was sufficient in and of itself. No, you still have to take out the garbage.

The second reason was because we know if someone grows up hearing words like "stupid," "ugly", "bad, " "no-good", etc. they begin to believe them and become them. (gosh, we know so much beyond that now!) By saying "I'm sorry" what are we creating? So we all had to come up with other, more thought-filled, ways of conveying ourselves. It's a bit magical.

I love the idea of taking the time with the person to redirect or lift the energy. Hope I can remember and have the nerve should the time come!

Bobi