"I'm not going to be your friend anymore"

I. Loathe. The words. In the title. Of this post. "I'm not going to be your friend anymore." When you think about it, there really is nothing nastier you can say to someone. I fail on a daily basis when it comes to parenting my children but I am absolutely darn certain that I have taught them, or tried (and evidently failed miserably) to teach them that it's all about Love. There you go kids. That's the answer. There is nothing else in the world that matters so much as Love. And also, if you don't have Love then you don't have anything. And Love isn't Love until you give it away. I could seriously go on and on and on spouting Love cliches but guess what? They are all true. Every one of them. Do you hear the Beatles song in your head now? "All you need is Love. do de do de do." I firmly believe this to be true and I am SICKENED when I see my children (ahem Ben) act in an unkind, nasty, opposite of loving way to each other and or their friends. We are blessed (cursed??) to live in a neighborhood filled with lots of children close in age to Ben and Joe and who, for the most part, all get along very well. I don't know who started the whole "I'm not going to be your friend" thing (I have my suspicions) but it has been picked up and the nastiness has spread like wildfire. It is the immediate go to when things aren't going someones way "well if you don't give me XYZ then I'm not going to be your friend." AAAAHH. This phrase is like nails on a chalkboard to me. Which is why I placed my "mean mom" crown on my head this afternoon and began my crusade to do away with this phrase. I have been telling my boys for weeks that we don't say "INGTBYFA" but today I spread the word throughout the neighboorhood, a few kids at a time. I somehow blinked and found four children in my home who don't belong to me (not a completely random occurance in his house) and ushered them all to the basement to play with Ben while Joe slept and I attempted to work. Literally within minutes the whining began and the first "INGTBYFA" gauntlet was thrown. Down went Mason. I said that was a mean thing to say and we don't talk like that so it was time to go home. Next went Ethan. Followed by Hannah. All brought down by the offending phrase that makes me want to scream. So now Ben is in his room crying and bemoaning the fact that he has "the most meanest mom in the whole world" while I plot how to continue my efforts to rid the world of the nastiness that is so casually tossed about among kids these days....or maybe it was tossed about when I was young too, who knows. All I know is I hate it. And I don't like to hate things. I'm a lover not a hater.