Thursday, September 25, 2008

Bad Words

I LOVE the innocence of children! Especially my children. I want to smile and laugh and get all choked up and everything all at the same time!

This morning Timothy informed me that there are some kids at school that are saying bad, bad words! He was so upset when he was telling me this that I was getting a bit concerned myself. How does HE know what bad words are?! After a bit more probing, he told me that there are some kids that always say to the others, "Hey! Stop butting! You're butting! No butting!" "Mommy," he said to me soooo sincerely serious, "Those kids shouldn't be saying such a bad, bad word at school! That is just NOT nice!"

Here's where I wanted to smile and get teary-eyed at the same time. My little 4 year old thinks that butting is a bad word! He was really quite upset by the poor manners of these other kids.

I explained to him what butting really means in that context and he was ok with it after that. He still thinks that no one should say that word at school or anywhere, though. Oh, I just love their innocence! If only he could stay this way!

8 comments:

LindaSue said...

I LOVE it! Two postings in a day (okay, I loved the posting, too). Lately, Susanna has started saying OMG, both the "real" version and the "tamer" version, neither of which are acceptable in this house. A former Sunday School teacher said the latter, while she occasionally hears the other from friends or TV. Warnings haven't stopped the occasional words, so I finally found something that did...freshly ground pepper on the tongue -- same thing has worked with Luke sticking out his tongue. Now, they both LOVE pepper on food, so I didn't know if it WOULD work, but it did! So... if he ever says those really, really BAD words, there's a tip for you!

GramS said...

Wouldn't it be nice if that would be the only bad word he ever hears?? Keep up the teaching and explaining, Mar. There's more to come.

Karen said...

And sometimes they even slip out when you're teaching...right mom?

LindaSue said...

oh! THERE'S a story I want to hear, Aunt Carole!

heidiannie said...

Sensitive little boys are such a gift to their mothers! I had two of them and I miss hearing the Holy Spirit speaks through a little boy's voice. The trick is to keep their sensitivity to the Lord's whilst preparing them to live in this world.

I found that listening and affirming their concerns along with explanations worked the best. I'm praying for your family, Martha!

Anonymous said...

How well I remember telling Mrs. Burns in the 7th grade that a classmate was swearing. She made me repeat what was said and I almost died! The whole class burst into laughter when I said "He said Shut up!" We were never permitted to say that at home. Gramp. always said you never say that to anyone, only to a barking dog!" How was I to know it wasn't a swear word? And, why could we tell it to a dog and not a person?

When our kids were younger, I advised them (after going through the same thing as Timothy) If you don't hear daddy or mommy, gramp or gram, or your Sunday School teacher using the word, you'd best not say it either. (Of course unless it slips out like gramschley)

liz said...

Our 14 year old daughter still cringes at the word "butt".

Martha said...

gramschley, what was it that slipped out when you were teaching?! I know you used to ask Dianne what the words meant that kids said at school, but I didn't know that you said them!

a.peg, Dianne also told Mom to shut up one time because she heard a preacher say it at church. When Mom found out that he was talking about Paul and Silas being shut up in prison, Mom told her that she could only say shut up if she was saying shut up in prison. Dianne's response, "Ok Mom. Shut up in prison!" (I believe that her age and her birth order got her out of a lot of trouble on that one! :)