Peace of Mind from Middle Schoolers

I have always maintained that the kids I nanny for make my days a little better. They are my daily dose of sarcasm, they crack me up with the crazy things they do at school and at home, and they are wonderful for Brian. He loves them and misses them when we don't see them. They are adorable and sweet with him and even though they might not admit it (the boys, I mean), I'm pretty sure they love him too.

Last week I was off because their mom was on spring break. So when I picked up the boys yesterday we hadn't seen each other in a week. I knew Brian had missed them because there was a teenage boy in the waiting room at the doctor's office on Saturday and Brian did everything in his power to get the boy's attention. Too cute! Anyway, since we had not seen each other last week, I had to fill them in on the hearing test information when they asked about our week.

At first they argued with me and told me that I had never told them he has hearing loss. Typical 8th graders!

After they got over that, Thomas said, "Well hearing aids really aren't that bad. It could be a lot worse."

I responded, "Really? It makes me happy to hear you say that because I've been really worried about how other kids will act around him."

Immediately David sounded off from the back seat, "Whoa, Mrs. Borchardt, you do not make fun of kids with hearing aids. They can't help it. You would have to be a real ass to make fun of a kid with hearing aid. No one does that!"

He went on to say that I would have to be careful when picking a school for Brian. He named one area school in particular and said, "Those kids are jerks, don't send him there, but anywhere else, he should be fine."

Then Thomas added, "Yeah and Brian is so big he can just pound anyone who makes fun of him anyway." And that was the end of the conversation.

Just like that they gave me something that most of the people in my life have been trying for months to give me. Peace of mind. How great are they?