The boy says dada a lot and makes various mumblings that could pass for a foreign language. He also dribbles his lips with his fingers to mix up the sound. I think he likes the sound of his own voice.
Even if he can’t talk, he’s starting to understand words. He claps when we say “clap your hands”. Usually, he’ll wave when we say “hi” or “bye-bye”.
So we’ve reached another memorable milestone in parenting and it comes with an epiphany: We need to watch what the heck we say. We’re hardly sailors, but we say things that we’d prefer weren’t among his first words.
Here’s a list of the mildly-offensive words we need to purge. And, we’ve taken innovative measures to protect sensitive or prudish eyes.
INNOVATIVE MEASURE: If you are bothered by rough language, please squint your eyes and scroll down until the following list is off your screen.
dangit
crap
heck
butthead
son of a!
stupid
moron
idiot
BS
stinkin’
freakin’
friggin’
frakkin’
hillary
And we certainly need to cut out the 3 four-letter words:
Vols
Dawg
Nole*
We say ‘dangit’ a lot (sorry, squinters!), so I’ve tried to replace it with something inoffensive: “Bubbles!” Hopefully The Gloved One will forgive me for taking his chimp’s name in vain.
Have any of you parents gone through such a cleanup of your language? Or are we just stinkin’ buttheads?
Do you have any ideas for other inoffensive substitutions?
* my apologies to my brothers in Tally: Clayton and Sam! ^_^
Related posts:
Don’t forget Tigers.
The Auburn AND LSU varieties.
You can never be too careful.
You are a GATOR Cool Dad! NEVER appologize for such Foul Words as those mentioned ; )
I am HORRIBLE about this. And I hear “Dad, you can’s say ______________.” (Options include stupid, hate, gosh, and all of you list.)
Every time my 4-year-old tells me this, I cringe knowing he is a vocabulary sponge.
The best reminder I have is when I get hit in the arm by my wife when I say something I shouldn’t.
Right now my 2-year old runs around saying, “Oh SNAP!” so… i guess that’s better…
lindsey – yes, we can call them the Tigs so they fall under the 4-letter variety!
matt – just don’t want to start a flame war. not until football season at least!
joy s – Vocabulary sponge: great name for a band! thanks for sharing your experience. you probably have the coolest 2-year-old around.
When my cousin’s kids learned “butthead,” he quickly taught them to say “boo-boo head” instead, now my mom and I use it all the time.
I love how you slipped “Hillary” in there and nobody has seemed to notice just yet.
I’m not a parent, but I have had moments where I realize how closely my nieces and nephew mimic me. It’s sobering, for sure! I only very occasionally cuss (shock and awe, I know), but never around the kiddos.
I do remember my grandpa and my dad letting some things slip when we were younger. Apparently my brothers called my grandpa out for it once, yelling “Oooooh! Swear woo! Swear woo!” at the top the of their lungs. Don’t ask me why it was “woo” instead of “word,” but Grandpa didn’t find the whole ordeal very amusing… =)
Oh I noticed Rachel – I was just taught not to say such things…
reese – nice substitute! btw, i used to love Beavis & Boo-boo Head. that show was stupidly genius somehow.
rachel – i could see how Grandpa might get annoyed by being called out for something he’s said for so long
matt – amazingly enough, we have our most subscribers yet after that post. maybe we picked up people doing searches for “hillary” and other moderately-offensive words.
Last month i let a big one slip and my two and half yr old decided to repeat it….of course. just looking at her sweet little mouth saying something so horrid really has helped me shape up…well at least i’m tryiing really hard. on the happy side, she picked up a little noah toy and said…Jesus! i told my hubby i didn’t know where she learned that…haha
apology begrudgingly accepted.
GO NOLES!!!!!
Hillary!!??!!!
Shoot-Darn is a family favorite here. It’s still a clear euphemism huh? Aahh fudge.
sarah – wow, they learn quickly, don’t they!
sam – football season will be fun around here
tam – Shoot-darn is nice. kill two birds with one stone.