Jun 4, 2010

What did you just say???

If you are a parent, you've probably had to a do a double take, at least once, and ask your child "what did you just say?"  Only to realize that they HAD in fact just said something you should NOT have had them repeat.

When my step son was little (like 2) one day he out of the blue told his father "F*** you, Daddy."  And he was asked to repeat it several times before we were all CERTAIN he was saying what we THOUGHT he was saying.  Timmy started swearing at about 18 months old and, lucky me, he was the clearest speaking child EVER.  Unfortunately, I had no one to blame but myself.  I constantly used the word 'crap' and a few of the lesser curse words and I was home full time with him.  For fear of total embarrassment when he let the cursing fly at church or the like, I tried hard to curb my tongue.  But I have to admit, its gotten just as bad, probably worse in the years since.

What's really funny to me though is when the boys really started to "appreciate" potty humor, we had to ban some not altogether bad words, they were just becoming over used in our house.  You know the ones...poop, fart, butt, etc.  Well, let me just tell you, if you have a list like this...I do NOT suggest you refer these forbidden words as the p word, f word, or b word.  I PROMISE you, it will come back to bite you in the 'b word!"  And it will likely happen at the worst place and time.  Like the middle of the library when your 4 year old comes running up to you yelling about how his brother is using the "f word!"  :::Sigh:::  Don't even bother trying to explain your way out of that one, it just doesn't work.

But I find it interesting how several words can mean the exact same thing but have varying degrees of unacceptableness (yup that's a word, just cuz I said so).  In our house, we (we being the adults) are apparently not evolved enough to be able to handle the correct terms for things so we talk about our bodies and our bodily functions using words like, wienie, peanuts, pee, poop, behind etc.  But for some families only the biological terms are acceptable.  And for me, even with my potty mouth, I can simply not bring myself to say several of the worst curse words...or even spell out some words I do, on occasion us, see above.

So, I'm curious.  What's on the list of unacceptable words in your house?  Has that list gotten a lot shorter than the list that was in your house when YOU were growing up?

4 comments:

  1. We thought "shut up" and crap were swear words. Also, I thought bow mument was poop because my mother didn't quite enunciate well enough. And we never EVER used silly words for body parts. It was disrespectful.

    I feel like a heathen whenever I remember to think about it. Because I say hell often and just this morning damn slipped out in front of my husband. Not to mention crappy, heck and dang. But, I'm happy. Cause it's less embarrassing to say pee and poop and potty.

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  2. Thankfully we homeschool and don't use daycare, so what they pick up is kept at a minimum. I have a bad habit of saying "darn it," which Kaya copies from time to time. Reggie says "crap," but the kids haven't picked it up. Thank goodness because he works for a church!

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  3. I unfortunately said 'what the' one day, I didn't even say he** after it. Now, my three year old has latched on to it and says 'what the' - all the time! Thankfully my older son seems to inherently know when I say a bad word that he is not to repeat it. I let some things slip sometimes and he hasn't repeated anything yet!
    No mom is perfect!

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  4. Yikes, I sound like a sailor compared to the rest thus far. I swear--a lot. I know it's wrong but it's just ingrained in me.

    The girls are not allowed to say the obvious--sh&&, he**, da**, f***, a&&.

    I am really trying to curb their bathroom talk. I honestly just say "i have to go to the bathroom" and expect the same from them. If it's #2, all I expect them to say is "i need help". However, school has made that a real challenge!

    They do not know the correct terms for their privates, they just call it their "front butt" or "back butt".

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