Language


I've worked with children for as long as I can remember. It started in late elementary with babysitting for neighbors or helping out in the nursery at church. My first real job was with 2 year olds in a daycare center. I've worked with elementary school kids, preschoolers, toddlers, and even as a nanny. I have always prided myself on my ability to switch off my bad language problem without even having to think about it. Co-workers over the years have been amazed at my ability to go from sailor to saint the minute a child walks in the room. I trusted that this would just happen naturally with my own child. I guess not.

Daniel has a rather large vocabulary of inappropriate words now. Some are just unfortunate mispronunciation, some are full out used properly bad words. One is even in another language!

It started with Percy. He's a friend of Thomas the Tank Engine and was Daniel's clear favorite when we first discovered the joy of Thomas and Friends. Unfortunately, at not quite two years old, Daniel pronounced it much like a word that can be used to describe either female genitals or a cat. This was hysterically funny at first (actually it still kinda is) and we just let it go. He has since started to pronounce the "r" a little more and so things are getting better.

Next, was the word "Penis". I'm not one for euphemisms. It's a penis, let's just call it that. I didn't think he would be able to say it so clearly or want to talk about it quite so much.

I blame our first bilingual faux pas on Diego. We were watching Go Diego Go one morning and they were hopping around and saying the Spanish word for hop. I'm not really sure what that is now, but to Daniel it sounded like the Spanish version of the f word. So, he spent the rest of the day hopping around the yard and house yelling that obscenity. He has yet to do it in public, but I know he will.

Here's the one that really gets me, though. He has started saying sh*t. A lot. And he uses it properly in the right context and everything. He started doing this after we spent a weekend out of town for a wedding, so he could have picked up from anyone. Still, it seems so familiar to him that I'm thinking I say it too often and just don't realize it.

But Wait! It gets worse. My first thought was to just ignore it, stop using the word myself, and he would to. That wasn't working. Everytime he stubbed a toe or dropped a toy out it came. Ok, plan B, correct him. Not making a big deal about it, one day after he said it I casually asked him to say "shoot" instead. He agreed. The next time he banged his knee he said "shoot......mother f**ker". I don't even want to think about how to handle that one!

I Told You So!


I told you I would abandon this blog! You were warned. How far did I get? Four entries? I'm to lazy to actually go and count them. I'm back now though. At least for one entry!