Shun…un-shun…re-shun.

When my son was about 4 years old, I heard him tell someone “I won’t be your friend again”.

I knew where it came from.

It came from the adults around him. I hear people say it all the time…sadly, often to children.

They believe it’s productive to train and/or teach a child to do something right by threatening to take away your love if they fail to do the expected thing.

I disagree.

So I made it a duty to be sure my boy didn’t join that school of thought.

It took some time, but I won him over.

I made him see, with my words and with my actions, that you don’t shut people out of your life just because they have done something you don’t like. Especially not loved ones.

I remembered this while I watched an episode of The Office where Dwight decides to shun Andy for 3 years. He explained that “shunning is an Amish technique – it’s like slapping someone with silence”.

The good part was how Dwight kept un-shunning Andy to discuss “important” matters throughout the episode…but he never forgot to hit the re-shun button though.

While that might be a funny episode from a TV show, there are real life Dwights and Andys out there…and I think it’s really sad.