Tonight, I was folding laundry while Andrew practiced writing letter As. We were chatting about this and that, and I will admit that I was just half listening and trying to push through until all three kids were tucked in and I could have a moment’s peace.

“What do you think I am, Mommy, a nerd?”

I instantly perked up, glancing up from the laundry to size up this question.

“Where did you hear that word, Andrew? What do you mean by ‘nerd'”? I was reluctant to just leave that one alone. With the kids back in school, I am always looking out to make sure they aren’t being pushed around, or being the one to give another a hard time.

“You know, Mommy. Nerds. They build really cool stuff, like robots. Nerds are awesome,” he explained as he finished his page of As.

Big sigh of relief. While I still am not entirely thrilled about the labeling of others (even though in this case, ‘nerd’ is being used in a complimentary fashion), I was happy to hear that he wasn’t being a big meanie.