Bad Words!

It's fairly well known that I have a foul mouth. Obviously, I have to curtail my cursing when I am at work (around all of those innocent children). I try to do the same in front of my own innocent children, too. I have discovered over many years that I must have some kind of cursing quota that I have to hit each week. When my work week ends, I swear more than any other time. Needless to say, I have slipped in front of the kids. And we all know what little sponges these darlings can be.


Luckily, we've never had any dramatic instances where the kids have used any of these words in public (I'm sure it's only a matter of time), but they have used them on a few occasions. The funniest thing about hearing a toddler or young child curse is that, they not only say the word crystal clear, but they use it in perfect context. Sean, for example, is only 2 1/2. One day a few months ago, he was playing a game on the computer in the kitchen while I cooked dinner. Apparently, it wasn't going well because, all of a sudden, he shouted, "Dammit!" in the middle of the game. I had to stop what I was doing because I was dumbfounded. He seemed completely unfazed.


The big challenge, at least for me, is being able to appropriately reprimand the angel with the sailor's mouth without laughing straight in their face. Lucy was in the back seat of the car one afternoon. Patrick was teasing her about some nonsense. She asked him, more than once, to stop bothering her. Of course, being a typically annoying big brother, he didn't. Out of the blue Lucy yelled (in that tiny, helium voice she used to have), "Patrick, you're an a$$hole!" In her defense, he was acting exactly as she described. We then had to have a serious conversation about how to deal with problems while I tried not to laugh at her little voice saying such a nasty word.


Sophie recently had a swearing incident in the car, herself. We were playing a rhyming game using words that end with the 'ock' sound. We had already discussed chalk, talk, rock, and sock. Sophie very innocently said, "Mama, I know another word that rhymes with 'sock'... f*ck." I'm not sure what possessed her to say it, because it doesn't rhyme I'm positive that she knew it was naughty. I think she even surprised herself, though. Before I could even say anything, she burst into tears about using bad language.


Lucy and Patrick are older now and they definitely know better than to swear. There is something far different about a toddler repeating something fresh versus an older child doing the same. It's not cute or even remotely funny when you're older and know better. That doesn't stop Lucy from whispering very quietly the word "jerk" (with feeling) when she gets in trouble for something. She is the sweet one, certainly, but she has a little dark side.


Unfortunately, I'm a terrible example. As a parent, you are able to pinpoint which words come from you and which come from your spouse. I'd like to try to blame PJ for those few times one of the kids has repeated a bad word. Sadly, though, I can tell that the majority of them are mine. Maybe I can get my act together before Charlotte drops her first f-bomb. 

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