Last night, as we watched "The Middle," which is my 6 year old daughter's favorite show, and after my husband and I had a brief discussion about how the NPA overreacts to the superbowl half time shows & commercials, but says nothing about so called family shows in the same time slot, my daughter said, "can I tell you bad words?"
I said, "sure, go ahead and tell me."
"stupid, hate, ugly."
And then I said, "crap?" My husband looked at me.
"yes, she said.
And I giggled on the inside, because those weren't really bad words at all, were they? I think the F, S, B, and GD words are bad words.
So, then, as I lay in bed last night, I pondered my daughter's naivety. When I was 6, I was a cussing machine. In fact, I remember the neighborhood kids threatening to tell my mom about it. When I was 8, I remember asking my 18 year old cousin if she cusses all the time. I was completely appalled at her answer of no. I replied that when I turned 18, I would cuss all day long. I mean, any 18 year old, free to do what they want, being 18 and all, would cuss all day long.
Why the infatuation with bad words?
And if I was such a cusser, why don't my kids know any REAL bad words?
And if they don't know any bad words by now, will they be naive forever?
These are the things that keep me up at night.
I didn't even learn sh*t until I was at least 10, but I'm certainly up on the cussing at 20. Trust me, she has plenty of time. Besides, if that's the worst you have to worry about, you can count yourself as lucky!
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