This is my routine Monday through Friday getting my kids ready for school. Around 6: 30 AM my alarm goes off, I hit the snooze button about two to three times now it’s 7:00 am. It’s go time.

Quianna: sonny it’s 7 am. Now you better not be yelling at the kids telling them to hurry up and wake up Jo Jo flash. You gotta get up earlier than that.

Sonny: alright yo. You got it. Baby crying-Dave Chappelle voice

I get the kids to school right before the gate close and we running like it’s a 4 x 100 to get into the building. Reid drops off Hannah then Morgan drops off Reid and then we are off to take Morgan to school. I go through my work day and then it’s on the way home but this ride home was a little different.

It started out normal. I got Reid, Morgan and Hannah and I just dropped off my sister at her house so we making our journey back to the house. We driving up Greenmount when we are at a standstill because of an accident. I got the movie playing in the back to keep the kids calm and out of nowhere Hannah says:

Hannah: look daddy, there’s a man sleeping standing up

Me: Hey Morgan what movie y’all watching

Morgan: Charlie Brown Christmas

Sonny: I don’t remember seeing that in the movie

Hannah: No daddy he’s over there to the left.

Reid: he’s not sleep Hannah. He’s a V. V is for Vampire. Blah blah blah

Morgan: Reid, he’s not a vampire. He’s dope fiend leaning

At this moment, I realize that this could go either 2 ways. I could keep it cool or keep it funky. Since this is me we are talking about I kept it funky.

Sonny: where you hear dope fiend leaning from Morgan?

Morgan: I heard it from you because you remember that time we were driving from Grandma house and we saw that white guy and you said he took way too medicine and now he too sleepy to move. But this guy here is black so is it more than one dope.

Hannah: Can I try it Dad

Sonny: FUCK No Hannah

Reid: yeah Hannah FUCK no

Sonny: watch your mouth boy

Morgan: what medicine are they taking because I don’t want any of that?

I knew this day would come I just didn’t think it would happen at 9 years old. We live in Baltimore City and these are some of the sights that she will use. It’s a harsh reality but she needs to be street smart as well as book smart. I began thinking that the best way for at least Morgan to learn is for to see for herself. I know she is only 9 years old but she is at the age where she is very observant and asking a lot of questions. I can remember when I was at that age and my grandfather used to take me down Pennsylvania Ave and we would walk through the projects before we would go into Shake and Bake and he would show me all these things and he would always preach to me, ‘if you don’t learn about God, listen to your parents or get an education you can end up just like them”. If it wasn’t my grandfather it was my dad teaching me some of the pitfalls from this reality that we live in. My dad showed me drugs and since he was a mortician he showed me dead bodies growing up who died from an overdose or shot because it was all related. In my opinion this is just rites of passage from me to Morgan. I realize that could open up a can of worms but I rather her hear this from me then someone else. I know some parents would take a different approach and that’s cool because there isn’t one perfect way for this situation. Since, I was driving and the kids couldn’t hear me, I just YouTube dope fiend leaning and I told Morgan to watch this video. This was a risky move on my behalf because your visual remembers more things that audio but I took this risk because if she sees it then hopefully it will deter her from ever doing it. Think of Scared Straight if you still don’t understand. After Reid, Morgan and Hannah saw the video, I asked them would they ever want to use drugs.

Morgan: no, daddy. That was scary. I don’t ever want to do that

Reid: Daddy I wouldn’t want to do that because I’m afraid I would fall down and hurt myself

Sonny: what about you Hannah? (I know she’s too young to understand but since she saw it, I asked the question)

Hannah: FUCK no….can I watch the rest of the movie now

We finally make it home and we open the door to see Quianna and Jo Jo Flash in the living room waiting on us as dinner is being prepared.

Quianna: hey kids

All kids: hi mom

Quianna: how was your day?

Reid: Good

Morgan: it was great

Hannah: I had a good day ma ma

Quianna: Good job Hannah. So were you on Green today?

Hannah: FUCK no.

Quianna: what you say? SONNYYYYYYYYYYYY.

Now I’m on the way to Stoko’s to get a chicken box to calm Quianna down.