We spent several terrific days last week on a family vacation. On the excruciating rather long drive back to Our Town, we kept The Kidling entertained in a variety of ways. Her favorite, of course, is watching a movie on the world’s tiniest portable DVD player. When she is all movie-ed out, we move on to looking at books and coloring. The Kidling doesn’t nap in the car, so this trifecta of diversion tactics typically works wonders. Alas, when she is nonfunctioning on four days of sleep deprivation and fun, The Mama and The Dada can only expect so much.
The vast majority of the endless journey car ride was uneventful. When Alice was coloring around hour three and dropped the lid to one of her glittery Hello Kitty pens, her language became… well… colorful.
Alice: Damn it!
The Mama: (gasps, shocked) What did you say? Alice, did you say “damn it?” Sweetie, that isn’t something we say.* Those are not nice words. It is okay to be frustrated. When you get upset, you can say ‘fiddlesticks.’ Or ‘shucks,’ or ‘bummer,’ or ‘darn!’
Alice: I’m sorry, Mom. I didn’t know ‘damn it’ isn’t a nice thing to say.
(60 second pass)
Alice: Damn it— Sorry Mom!
The Mama: I forgive you, Alice. I just want you to think about the words you choose. Sometimes Mom and Dad say “Damn it.” Adults get to choose their words and they have to deal with the consequences of their choices. When you are a kid, though, you are still learning which words might be upsetting to some people. Until you are grown-up, I don’t want you to say that. Do you understand?
Alice: Yes, Mom. I’m sorry. (long pause) I am sorry I said ‘Damn it.’ I didn’t know I’m not supposed to say ‘Damn it.’
The Mama: (heroically keeps straight face. Let’s this one pass)
Damn it, this parenting shit is hard!
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* Lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie, lie. I do, in fact, say damn. Also: shit, hell, and fuck. Can you spell hypocrite? I can. “T-h-e M-a-m-a.”
There has to be some upside to adulthood…:-)
Precisely. Damn kids…
Lol, we all do it! Hypocrites or not, it’s hard to break our own habits, when we are trying to teach our kids to not form them in the first place.
Exactly!
Ours got in trouble for a few videos he made with rather colorful language – there is still one bad word he likes to use even though he gets in trouble for it… For the most part though, he is quick to admonish us for poor language. The other day he was lecturing my husband about how he wasn’t going to go to heaven if he didn’t change his language. It was beautiful.
What a stinker! They do keep us on our toes, don’t they?!
Yes, they are just too dang clever.
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Cracking up!!
Lucky you. I had to keep a straight face.
Please explain to me why “damn it” was not one of your tags!
Reminds me of that scene from A Christmas Story, in which Ralphie is asked by his mother where he heard the word “fuck.” Of course, he heard his father say it millions of times, but blamed it on his friend since calling his dad a hypocrite probably would have garnered him another ten minutes of Lifebuoy in the mouth.
Because my favorite Happiness Engineer told me that when you use more than 15 tags, your posts don’t show up in the topics, thereby making the tags moot. Bummer. No more silly tagging for me.
Unless I am at 14 tags, then by all means I will throw another in for giggles!
Bastards! Why do they care how many tags we use? Is there a tag shortage?
I heard about some sort of tag embargo. We have been bad bloggers, so we are being denied our tags.
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