Oh, No--It's Already Happening!!!!

Ok...so Lou and I had the experience of hearing Benjamin say his first curse word on Friday morning while we were getting him ready for school. Mind you, it was not the "worst" one he could have said (as if putting them in "order" from not-so-bad to horrible justifies it coming out of his mouth)...but it is a word that most parents who choose to teach their kids right from wrong (which by the way, are becoming harder and harder to find) would not tolerate. He didn't say it in a context that you would normally say it in...he was just looking around the room and said it. When I asked, "What did you just say, Benjamin?", he looked straight at me and said, "I said, ****, Mommy" with the most innocent look on his face. I asked him if he knew what it meant--he said no. I asked him where he heard it--he said school. Anyways, the conversation went on from there about our choice of words and how some words are not acceptable at all, in any circumstance and that was one of them.

So, afterwards, I was thinking about it and I knew that this scenario would eventually happen. They hear words at school that they've never heard before and don't realize it's not ok to repeat them and it's sure not ok to say them. With him being in kindergarten and kids these days being exposed to this kind of stuff younger and younger, I knew it was bound to happen at some point. BUT, here's my issue....it's not so much that he heard another kid say it, but my issue is that these kids who say stuff like this are more than likely hearing it from home. I can NOT for the life of me understand why grown men and women think it's ok to talk like that around their kids.

My mom and I were in Wal-Mart (which seems to be a breeding ground of frustration for me in more ways than I can list) one evening when this little girl, who couldn't have been older than two, was walking/running way ahead of her parents. So her dad yells out, "Maria (or whatever her name was) get your a** back here right now." Now, how hard would it have been to say "get your rearend/bottom/tushi/fill-in-the blank for whatever you feel is appropriate for children to say and hear"? And we wonder why our kids are coming home from KINDERGARTEN saying words that they've never heard at home.

So, not only are we now trying to do our best to teach our children to make good choices and use appropriate language, but we're having to take up the slack for those parents out there that don't do the same for their kids. Sorry for the ranting post, but some issues should NOT have to be dealt with in kindergarten. I'm thinking, right about now, that there's a lot to be said for keeping your kids in a bubble until they're 30.