The "F", the "S", the "C" and the "It" Word

(Photo Caption: "Dirty Mouth? Clean it Up!", Photo Credit: Orbit Gum)

I heard a great story from a dear friend of mine, a woman who is devout, sincere, overall a moral compass to any mom - who kicked a very NASTY habit a while back!

Here's her story:

"Once upon a time, before getting married, before having children, I developed a very bad habit of cursing. My husband never developed this bad habit and worked very hard to get me to give it up, espcially after our twins ( a boy and girl, now 6 1/2) were born. Over time, I actually did stop, I even got to the point where I was appalled at hearing other people's "salty" language.

One day this past summer, my oven had grease fire in it. When I open the door to see large flames, I screamed and a let an "S" bomb drop in front of my kids who ran into the kitchen after I screamed. As far as I can remember, this was the first time I did such a thing, and was utterly disgusted with myself. I called up my husband immediately to let him know what happened.

Later that day, in the car with my 4 children (the twins, a 4 year old son and a 3 year old daughter) a yelling match broke out between the twins. I was in overwhelming traffic and as I normally do, I ignored the yelling and focused on driving; until I heard the following exchange:

Daughter: "I'M SO ANGRY AT YOU I'M GOING TO USE THE S-WORD"
Son: "I'M SO ANGRY AT YOU I'M GOING THE F-WORD"
Daughter: "WELL I'M GOING TO USE THE C-WORD"
Son: "WELL I'M GOING TO USE THE IT-WORD" (he pronounced it as one word "it")

My stomach sank, I was sweating and feeling like the worse parent in the world, I began to wonder if I had actually been, unwittingly, saying other curse words in front of my kids. I was deliberating what to do, but the kids were pretty agitated and I needed to stop that.

I said to my son "I can tell you are really angry, but I am very upset that you want to used such bad language, I need to know where you learned it because I think it's from your favorite cartoons."

Son: "It's not"
Me (still sweating and nervous): "Well, I think I need to know what the words are so I figure where you learned them"
Son: I won't get in trouble I say it?
Me: "Not like this. Can you tell me what the F-word is?"
Son: "Fight"
(I had to start immediately holding back a giggle)
Me: "And the S-word?"
Daughter: "Stupid"

Me: (breathing heavy so as not to laugh at loud): "And the C-Word?"
Daughter: Kill
Me: And the it-word?
Son: Idiot.

We might need to work on their spelling, but their manners are ok for now."