I'm not sure how Julie and I got on the subject of our children swearing ...oh wait...now I remember...to tell you that story, I have to tell you this one.
Sunday night erupted into family game night. Owen was desperately wanting to play spoons, and play we did. Kevin and Alex didn't know how to play. What kind of childhood did they have? Oh wait...Alex is still in his childhood and wait a second...I'M his mother. What kind of mother am I that my 14-year-old has never played spoons. Hmmm...I should have a talk with myself about that.
After several games - we switched up to Uno. I still love Uno. It's easy, it's fun...and there's nothing more satisfying for a 9-year-old boy than telling his dad to Draw 4. It's quite empowering. So empowering, in fact, that Owen felt the need to ask us for the upteenth millionth time if he could say the word "crap." My husband has been very clear on this - no. NO. Yes - we talk like truck drivers, both of us, but the boys do not. Do not, will not, have not, to my knowledge. Well, there was that one incident with Al getting halfway to the barn, realized he forgot the keys, stopped, muttered "shit" and turned around. I just so happened to be standing in the living room and the windows were open. I stuck my head out and said "What was that you said there Alex?" - Blank stare - fearful expression - I've never heard it out of his mouth again.
So now we're playing Uno and discussing whether or not Owen can say crap. He currently says crud. A lot. But he did get in trouble in school the other day for saying "what the freak?" when a girl moved his chair out from under him. Whoops. So we finally agree that Owen can now, at long last, say the word crap. Which he does. All night long. In fact, we all sat around using sentences that could involve that word ... "don't change colors or I'll kick the _______ out of you." And we'd leave the blank and let Owen fill in the word...which he did - quite happily. It was very funny.
Then we moved on to "Pit" - no one had ever played this before. I just bought it at Navy Pier and was dying to play. Owen had decided that instead of trying to win, he was just going to try to keep us from winning. And by "us" I mean "Kevin." That made it even funnier. But here's the best part. The hand ends...Alex had won...and Owen looks up sheepishly at Kevin
"You were trying for Oranges, weren't you."
"YES!!" Kevin screams...did you have the one I needed??"
"Heh-heh - yeah - I kept it over here and didn't trade it, just to see if I could screw you."
Ummmm, what? Whodawa? Okay, so we just had to have a 30 minute conversation about whether or not he can say CRAP and now he's talking about screwing someone out of their card. It was brilliant. I don't think I've laughed that hard in awhile. So we removed the word "screw" from his vocabulary - and he promptly replaced it with "crap" - "I'm going to try and crap dad out of winning" - "I totally crapped you Alex!"
He was satisified until I let Alex use the word jack ass when telling a story. Yes, he asked first.
So back to the original story...Julie is perplexed. I talk like a truck driver, and yet - my kids never have. Never. Ever. I've never had that embarrassing F-bomb dropped in pre-school. Never had them call someone an inappropriate name in Sunday school. Why is that? Because Jul feels like she's really nipped her potty mouth in the bud - and yet Hayden drops the G-D word when he can't get his snowman built the way he wants to. Hilarious.
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posted by rebecca for tigger whose internet is crawlingI am a firm believer parents should not change and eliminate bad words (if they use them) the same way every knick-knack shouldn’t be cleared from anything 4 feet and below. Kids get used to it, they deal with it and they are taught not to touch and not to say.
Bottom line. Although, I do watch what I say around “other” people’s kids. Out of respect for them, ya just never know.
As much as Brian drops F-bombs (I think every other word) Austin just says, “bad word,” and goes about his business. He is, however, a huge fan of the word crap, and we are a big “no” on that. But seriously, he’s 4. We don’t allow “oh my God” either. Its “oh my gosh”.
Tell Julie to start cussing more and see what happens! Ha!
Shit is the word of choice in our household and Vivian (2) has picked up on it. I have only heard her say it twice. Once at Anton Insurance Office she was playing around with their phones hit a button that made a loud beeping noise and knowing she may have done something wrong you hear a quite little innocent "Oh Shit!"
Needless to say Uncle Jimmer got a kick out of it.
Ok, Miss Eggo is leaving one crucial part of the story out. That is, while Vivian was playing with the phone Eggo is kackling along at another phone while Kerry (teammate) and I are at the front counter talking with a client that was in an auto accident a day or so before hand. We are in this discussion and Vivian's comments came out and it stopped both Kerry and me like deers in headlights. We looked at eachother and said, "did she say what I think she said?" The client looked at us as if to say, "Hello, my car is wrecked!
Julie, I probably have a little something to do with Trucker Hayden's mouth...That what Uncle's are for though...
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Oh Uncle Jimmer - between you and I, H doesn't stand a chance.
Although - aren't you the founder of "paper plate" - or just the reason it had to be used?
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