Bad Words

Bad words. 

You try REALLY hard to avoid saying them around your kids, but you know what, sometimes they just slip out.  The incident that evoked the d-word for me was at Christmas.  I was trying to get something out of the fridge when I grabbed a big pan of a jello fruit salad thing.  I ripped it out of the fridge without realizing it hadn't set.  Bright red, liquid jello and fruit splashed all over the inside of the fridge, the floor, the cabinets and me.  That resulted in a resounding D&*#@-it!  My two year old son, Caiden,  never forgot it.

My 4 year old daughter, Campbell, never had a problem with repeating bad words.  Caiden, delights in it.  He picks up EVERYTHING!  He can be immersed in role-playing with his toys, on the other side of the house, and still hear a bad word.  Even when you say a non-bad word with emphasis. 

Not long after the jello incident, he dropped a toy and let out a loud D#$&-it! I said Caiden we don't say that word.  So he changed it slightly  and started saying it more like "dommit".  That too, got him in trouble. 

About a week or so later, at the dinner table, he dropped his fork and instead of "dommit", he came out with "doughnut".  He said it with a huge smile on his face, just waiting for our reaction.  I had to turn away on that one.   That little stinkpot was being clever!   He took great joy out of saying that for a few days.  I either tried to ignore it or say yes, we like doughnuts.  When the fun wore off, he switched up words. 

Once again at dinner time, as I was heading to the fridge, he threw out "doughnut".  No reaction from me.  He said it again.  Still no reaction.  With my back to him, I hear the new word.  Out comes a thundering "ommit", like dommit, without the "d".  The little bugger's getting even more clever.  I chuckle to myself and slowly turn around with a partial straight face, trying not to give him the satisfaction.  It didn't work.  He was beaming.  He'd scored.  It was 1-nothing, Caiden.