aAs many of you know I have three children and one on the way. My second oldest is four years old and his name is Owain (pronounces "O-wen"). He is by far my funniest child and so simple in nature. I remember my wife and I went to the mall to purchase some clothes for our kids. While shopping I spotted a cool football t-shirt with a wolf wearing football gear holding up the letter "D" and a small white-picket fence. If you're unfamiliar with sports when you hold these two things together you are cheering on the "defense" of a team.

We gave our kids their new clothes and they started trying them on right away. My two model girls were showing off their jeans, shirts and dresses in runway fashion. My son comes out of his room extremely excited about his football shirt. He runs up to me with excitement yelling "Dad! Dad! Look what my shirt says..." He pointed to his shirt with a big grin and said, "D gate!" As his dad I couldn't help but laugh and tell Brieana.

You see I had a choice to either correct him or be excited right along with him and encourage him. He wasn't wrong. It was a gate, though it was supposed to be translated "fence." As a parent I want to encourage my kids when they're excited. I don't want to crush them. Sure, if it's something serious I'll bring correction, but it's the small things that shouldn't matter. I was excited because he had a defense football shirt; he was excited because his shirt stated D-gate.