Thursday, January 15, 2009

He Speaks A Foreign Language

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While Sam's parents were visiting, we did some exploring in the woods behind the house. Apparently, during one of the outings, while Owen and Gramma Nette were sharing some special time together, Owen told her he knew how to spell a bad word. When she asked him to spell it he said, "P - O - M". She asked him to clarify because he sometimes talks into his coat and mumbles. He again spelled, "P - O - M". The subject changed, but returned when he said, "Gramma Nette, my friend's sister teaches him bad words." Gramma Nette then made the mistake of asking what types of bad words, to which Owen replied, "B***H". Impressed with his vocabulary, she told us the story later that night. Maybe we were in denial, maybe we thought she didn't hear him correctly, but it sort of went in one ear and out the other (sorry Gramma Nette).


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This past Sunday, Sam took the boys to get their hair cut. In the car they were discussing "strong words". Now that they are getting older, the kids hear words like "stupid, idiot, etc." on the playground and in cartoons, but we have tried to deter them from using them. Sam and I have told them that they are "strong" words, but are not "bad" and the context in which the words are used is important. So, Sam and the boys were discussing the words - they love this topic - and Owen again said he knew a bad word because Logan's sister "telled" them to Logan and Logan "telled" them to him. Again, when asked to repeat the word Owen said the big B word. Sam said he nearly drove off the road he was so shocked to hear that word come out of Owen's sweet little mouth. Sam asked Spencer if he had heard that word and Spencer said, "Ahh, ahh, I, um, I thought he was making it up, or speaking in a foreign language, or something."


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So, I guess the moral of this story is to listen to your mother/mother-in-law because now instead of 1 child speaking a "foreign language", we have 2.

3 comments:

MKHKKH said...

Oh boy! We haven't ventured into that department yet. Ugg!

Leeann said...

Yep, strong words, bad words, trash words...whatever you call them, they do hear them. Certainly by the beginning of middle school for the major words but by mid elementary school they heard a good portion of the ones (past the level one words like stupid etc).

We are continuously deciding how to negotiate that, based on the levels of our kids and what is reasonable to expect.

I shoulda guessed it would be Owen, the frat! lol

Julie said...

Sadly - it is more like "Commoner's language" and is so prevelant in our society that it is hard to shield little ears from it. Kind of makes you want to trash your TV too huh???