Apology Not Accepted

When one of our boys was little, about three years old if I remember correctly, my wife took him to play at a park near our home. It was a nice afternoon, a rare time without a million things to do and places to be. The park wasn’t crowded, but there were a few other moms there with their little ones. As children as inclined to do, they drifted together and started to play.
For awhile, all was uneventful and eventually it was just two of them; my son and a little girl playing together near the jungle gym. At one point in this adventure of play and new friends, my son suddenly reached over, put his hands on the girls shoulders and gave her a big kiss. The little girl stepped back with a look of surprise … and punched my kid right in the face!
Her mother was appalled. She thought what my son had done was “cute” and demanded that her daughter apologize. My wife wouldn’t allow it. The little girl had nothing wrong. Our son had.
We begin teaching our sons to share and tell the truth as soon as we can. Maybe if we taught them to respect girls/women just as early, we would avoid some trouble and pain later on. It might seem “cute” when they are three, but it doesn’t look so “cute” when they force themselves on someone when they are twenty-three. The earlier we learn the important lessons, the better.
~Godspeed