Oh Shit!

11/26/08

At work, curse words are part of the every day vernacular. There are even some that treat it like a game where the goal is to be the person who can drop the F-bomb the most times in a sentence without it sounding like they are trying too hard.

At home, curse words don't usually come any stronger than "Shoot" or my MIL's favorite - "Oh Sugar!"

Today after school, N. was in a snit because the Mac-n-Cheese wasn't cooking fast enough in his little opinion. B. was sitting in the dining room trying to calm down N. and pointing out, as he threw his water cup to the floor for the 5th time, that "Mommy, what you are trying just isn't working". We finally got food infront of them and were in the kitchen talking.

I began to tell Jim a story that began with a guy at my office yelling "Oh Shit". Immediately after the words flew out of my mouth, Jim spun around with a gleeful look. I had finally slipped up within the hearing range of the kids. Like a fool I froze. In hindsight, I should have kept on talking like nothing happened (therein lies the lesson for the day) but, instead, I stood there waiting to see if the kids would react. Silence for about 15 seconds... then "Mommy, why did that man say 'Oh shit'?"

With an oh-so-deft manuever I said, 'He did not say that, he said 'Oh Ship' like he had seen a boat." She didn't fall for it. A minute later she asked, is that like 'Shoot' and then proceeded to tell me all of the synonyms for Shit that she knew in that context, ending with her spilling her milk and saying calmly, "Oh Jeeze."

So far, no repeats of the swear version, but we have dinner with Great-Grandma tomorrow, so it is sure to come out then!