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January 21, 2005

Adventures in Parenting - 'bad words'

Couple of weeks ago I wrote about the Kid Rock kerfluffle. A couple of days ago, Jeff Goldstein posted about the "f-bomb" launched at the Inaugural Youth Party inspite of Kid Rock's "un"invitation (with the subsequent pique from Michelle Malkin, which frankly I just don't get). I've shared one of my own stories of Parent vs Kid Mouth a few other places but here. Hey, it's Friday night, let's start with a couple of laughs!

When #2 daughter, Erin, was about five, she and the next door boy, Michael, who was the same age loved to play together. However, they could only do it for short periods of time because they would inevitably end up fighting. Michael figured since he was a boy he should always win and my Erin would just have none of that nonsense. One day they were playing basketball -- the li'l kidsize version -- and everytime Erin would score Michael would get mad and take the ball away. Erin definitely had inherited her father’s Irish temper and it flared in this instance. Suddenly there is a knock on my door and there stands Michael.

“Mrs. M! Mrs. M! Erin just called me a ‘bitch’”

“Ok. Michael. I’ll talk to Erin.”

Now name-calling is one of my pet-peeves. I’ve always tried to tell my girls that getting mad is ok, anger is normal, but we don’t hit and we don’t call names. So I call Erin over (who is still huffing about the injustice of Michael) and tell her not to call Michael a ‘bitch.’

“That’s a bad word, Erin. You know our house rules about bad words and name calling”

So she goes back to play. Within about 10 minutes there is yet another knock on the door.

“Mrs. M! Mrs. M! Erin called me a ‘bitch’ again.”

So again I call Erin over, explain firmly what I expect. I even tell her to stop playing with Michael if it’s going to make her so mad. She really really wants to play with him. And I tell her she’s been warned twice. If it happens again, I will wash her mouth out with soap.

15 minutes later ... ::knock:: ::knock:: “Mrs. M! Erin called me a ‘bitch.’”

True to my word, I took Erin to the bathroom, put some soap on my finger and “washed her mouth” of the dirty word. She was upset, for sure. I emphasised “Erin this is what happens after two warnings. Are you going to call Michael a ‘bitch’ again? Because that will mean more soap.”

“No, mommy.”

And like all fast-bouncing little kids she soon regains her calm and wants to go back and play.

20 minutes later ... ::::knock:::knock:::

I’m rolling my eyes as I open the door to find Michael ... “Mrs. M! Mrs. M! ...”

“Oh Michael” I interrupt thinking of what to do outside of soap “Did Erin call you a ‘bitch’ again?”

“No, Mrs. M! This time she called me a ‘fucking asshole.’”

Posted by Darleen at January 21, 2005 06:11 PM

Comments

- Priceless.... good laugh at the end of a long week.... tanx....

Posted by: Big Bang Hunter at January 21, 2005 10:20 PM