Tuesday, November 11, 2008

Watch Your Mouth! Wait, MY Mouth?

I curse. A lot. I curse when I type. I curse when I talk. I curse when I drive.

When I first had Ella, I worried about this aspect of myself, thinking I'd raise a little sailor. But my best friend explained it best to me. She curses and from that, her kids heard it and learned, from a very early age, they are bad words. In fact, as her experience was, when they actually were old enough to go to school, the curse words were ~so~ blasé to them, she never had a problem with them cursing. She did have the story when they first tried to use the word when very little, as do I, but that's really about it. Or so I thought.

A few nights ago, the girls were playing in their room a little too quietly and Tom went to check on them. (I was out at a friend's house, so I missed the exchange.) Apparently, the girls were whispering a "bad word" to one another.

Ella: "Allison, if you say it, you have to whisper it."
Allison: "asshole."
Ella: "asshole."

Tom was able to contain his laughter long enough to go in, tell them they aren't allowed to whisper it either and we'll talk about it in the morning.

During the talk the next day, I told them we'd make a deal. I'd try to watch my mouth and they would agree to not say the words at all. They agreed and then Ella had an idea for me.

Ella: "Mommy, when someone pulls in front of you, you can just just say 'darn!'."

heh.

13 comments:

Morgan Owens said...

LOL, I swear I have said this a million time but your girls REALLY should be on "Kids say the Darndest Things" show!

Kaci said...

Your girls are too funny!

Hope Allie is feeling better.

Amanda said...

Hee hee hee...we'll see how well the "darn" idea works, huh?

To A T said...

LOL, I think I might have the same problem as you... maybe I should clean up my mouth before I get preggo? No luck so far though.

Love your alternate word... I may have to try that... followed by a few others of course! ;-)

Heather said...

I know I've had to clean up my language around Phoebe too. She used the word damn correctly twice in one week when she was four years old. We had a long conversation. She also once told her father that she was going to "kick his ass" when he was teasing her too much. Hmmmm. She didn't get that from me, right? That one was so close to being me, I laughed my ass off!

jenn said...

I love it! I've been trying really hard to curb it now- substituting eff off, or 'what the eff'. They just sound ridiculous. And it's completely unsatisfying. I haven't tried 'darn' yet though! ;o)

ssbean said...

That is so funny. Maybe I should consider watching what I say. Yep I use "bad words." I really can't help it and really it's just part of life. I mean who says they're bad, people do.

Amanda said...

I recently had what felt like an excruciatingly long talk with my 4 year old about why dad says f*ck. It went round and round about how I sometimes say it too. Hopefully she won't educate her preschool teacher about not saying it.

Jennie said...

The daycare teacher for my two year old just informed me that when he got frustrated with a toy the other day he threw it at the wall and yelled, "Asshole!". You would have to know him to appreciate this. He is the most laid back mellow little guy. So, to picture this is hilarious. However, I hate to admit, that this is so an imitation of me. Oops.

Sarah said...

This made me giggle. How cute!!!

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Thanks for the nice comment on my pics. Yes, Andrew is feeling much better today. The snot has slowed down tremendously. :)

MrsSpock said...

LOL. I can't really see you "cursing" like Ned Flanders.

Anonymous said...

OMG....that is too funny! I love it!
Heather

Kathy said...

That is hilarious!!! I bet Darn will be coming out of your mouth a lot!!! LOL gotta love the things kids say!