Wednesday, September 21, 2011

The Power of Words (Part II)

I don't do a lot of "cursing" in the normal course of conversation. I might let certain words slip out but that tends to happen at home where my husband and the tortoises don't mind. I am very aware of the company I'm in and I do my best to not let even what my sister tells my niece and nephew are "potty words" out if I can help it.

I was doing so good, really I was...until my sister took out a toy she'd been saving for the kids. She thought it would be fun for Aunt Maddie to put it together and for all of us to play with it. To make a long story short, my sister was lucky I didn't throw the thing through her bay window. I could not get it to work. The car was supposed to go on the track and then go upside down and then...I'm getting frustrated just thinking about it.

So, what I wanted to say was "This thing is s***!" but I caught myself in time. Then, I started to say, "This thing is c**p!" but all I could think of was my nephew, B, asking what "c**p" meant. What I ended up with was "This thing is...poopy." (I know, I know.)

Now, keep in mind, I didn't know about the whole "potty words" thing then. Well, B and T looked at me, eyes wide WITH DELIGHT, mouths turned up in HAPPY GRINS. "Aunt Maddie said poopy! Aunt Maddie said poopy!"

And so, as you can imagine, I was a hit - with the kids, anyway - for the rest of the visit.

In my defense, I truly did have the best of intentions. But I think that fact was lost on everyone when, later in the day, my niece, T, said in her teeny, tiny voice, "Poopy," and then smiled at us all.

10 comments:

  1. As a teacher, I try to refrain from cussing in front of my students and resort to many odd euphemisms myself.

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  2. Ha! I bet you could work cussing and euphemisms into a writing assignment somehow. :)

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  3. So true. When my kids were little, I was super aware of what I said and would substitute words like 'frick' and yes, even once, 'poop'
    This is all good in theory until you hear 'oh, frick' OR 'this is poop' come out of your toddler's mouth. :)
    parenting fail...

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  4. Elena, what cracked me up was the look on my niece's face - she knew she was using a "bad" word and was just reveling in her rebelliousness.

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  5. Words are very powerful. You handled yourself well under the circumstances. Good job.

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  6. hehe. My kids like to make up jokes that involve poop, rocks, or boogers. Don't know where they heard the word "rocks" but I'm going to have a word with their dad. xx

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  7. Love it! I actually have a pretty bad potty mouth because my dad was in the Navy, so the words flowed from his mouth in a constant stream, and of course I picked up the habit. But I control it so well when not with family that most of my friends are actually shocked when they hear me curse. It's pretty funny. But it's like farting - once I break the cursing ice with a friend, then it's fair game after that.

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  8. Ah, Jocelyn, that's how you know you're comfortable around someone. :)

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