An Accomplishment

I've always been careful to avoid calling so-called swears "bad words." They're not BAD, per se, they're just better suited for people who don't schedule their day around a bunch of animated talking dogs. We'll go with "grown-up words." That works for us.

That worked for Alexis, at least. She is the rule follower, of course, so she's over here in seventh grade still clutching her pearls when she overhears someone saying "heck." Her standards are waaaaaay higher than mine, is what I'm saying. Words that I find to be totally acceptable send her into a tizzy. Which, whatever. It's fine. If she wants to maintain a list of 200 words she feels are inappropriate, that's her choice.

I swear in front of her now. Mostly becasue I love watching her clutch her pearls.

This theory of "grown-up words" is failing with Mila, on the other hand. She wants to know "bad or good" because if it's "bad?" SHE IS SO THERE. The kid looooves to break rules so she has managed to make all sorts of things inappropriate. For example, she eloquently says, "What the ... ?" in a way that leaves you filling in the blank so quickly that you think she filled in the blank and WELP. She's technically only saying "good" words but everybody still ends up thinking swearing has happened.

And now it has.

Somebody must have said, "What the hell?" around Mila because she started filling in the blank. And if I thought Alexis clutched her pearls when *I* swear, we have unlocked a new level of grandma when Mila sort of swears. It would be my new favorite thing if I weren't worried that Mila is teaching her friends at school her new saying.

That other saying is my bigger concern, though.

Let's go ahead and mark our calendars, kids. Today was the day when I first hear one of my girls drop the "f" word in perfect context. It was said with a level of expertise that comes with practice.

It wasn't Alexis.

Which makes it official. My 4-year old officially swore before my 12-year old did. WELP.

Comments

[mmppgh]

My son accomplished that at 2. Screaming it, in context, from atop the dining room table. (Don't ask how he ended up there.) We were still veerrryyy careful about what we said in front of him at that age, too, so we were more than a little shocked.