Crap!

Posted on February 26, 2008 and filed under Parenting and Other Misnomers..., Articles

By, Sonja Stewart

We are at an interesting phase in parentdom currently. Our little 23 month old has learned some great and not so great things. I am partially responsible for the not so great things.

I’ll start at the beginning.

A few months ago, my husband and I decided to improve our vocabulary. No, we didn’t decide to break out a thesaurus, we just agreed that we would no longer let bad language slip into our daily vernacular. Our tot was listening to every word we said and blah blah blah…we didn’t need that type of language in our life anyway. Not to say we were cussing like sailors, just every now and then…when a hammer would hit a thumb, or a glass would break, our words would slip out unexpectedly.

So everything was fine, I thought…until our little one started saying “$!*t!” every time the phone rang or when she would knock something over.

At first we weren’t certain this was what she was saying. She didn’t learn that from meeeee….i accused.

But then I started to pay attention. She was saying it silently, under her breath, with an emphatic “T” sound at the end….just like I did.

I tried to undo the damage…the only thing I can do is stop saying it and hope she forgets.

Another great habit:

One night we were sitting at the dinner table and she burped. It was totally cute and funny at the time…so I laughed. Hard.

Now she tries to burp all the time.

I guess Sunday school has been teaching her manners, (it sure hasn’t been me,) because she’s started to say, “Excuse me,” after burping. I sat there, stunned and proud, (and embarrassed) as she excused herself, because she learned manners from somone other than her mother.

Jeff and I looked at each other, unsure of what to say.

“Great job!” “Woo hoo!” came out of our mouths before we could think of anything else.

Our daughter is learning manners from church and bad language at home.

Great job, I know.