from the mouth of babes...

Well, we officially have had our first swear word incident this weekend. It was a rainy weekend with Kyle and I busy sorting through things: the playroom, my scrapbooking area, the paper pile on the counter, etc. Neither Kyle nor I are big swearers, but I think that we both had a couple of frustrating moments or moments of stubbed toes in which the swear word/phrase of choice was "GO* D&M**$!" Okay, the stage has been set, now fast forward to Sunday evening. Ethan is sitting in the play tunnel and Alexander decides that he needs to be in the exact same spot as his brother, so he climbs in and plops himself down on top of his brother. I am sitting at the computer next to the tunnel and I hear, "God dammit, Alexander! Get off of me!" Kyle's eyes and my eyes met in horror from across the room. I kindly ask, "What did you just say, Ethan?" His response, "I said 'God dammit, Alexander'". Oh boy, what to do now? Especially when you KNOW you are the source behind that statement. I decided to calmly ask Ethan to come out to talk with me. I explained that we can't use that word/phrase and that Mommy and Daddy shouldn't use it, either. I did point out that he used the phrase correctly so in some sense it is nice to know that he IS listening to us and learning from our conversations.

Ethan and I agreed that if he said it again, it was a zero tolerance phrase and that he would get an automatic time out if I heard him say it again. I also agreed that he could give me a time out if he heard me say. His wise response was, "But kids can't give grown-ups a time out!" I agreed that I probably wouldn't take a time out, but that he should feel free to at least point it out to me if he heard me say that word again.

I comfort myself with the fact is that at least it isn't the "F" word. If I have to rate swear words, at least the one that is floating around our house right now is one of the tamer ones!

It must be time to sign off because our youngest just replied with "dammit" when I told him that he couldn't get into something. Oh dear....time for another conversation!