what a topic, huh? and it's not one you ever really think about until you have kids... and even then, not until they're old enough to start repeating things that they here. it's usually not until some little unsavory word pops out of their chubby-lipped mouths that you even realize all that they absorb. how do you react to that moment? what's your next step?
i know we censor a lot less than most. our kids hear a lot and we don't tell them to put their fingers in their ears. a word or two has innocently popped out of my oldest's mouth over the years. don't get me wrong, it's shocking, but talk about a teachable moment. we've had the conversation a few times about how we will always hear bad language, but that doesn't mean we have to use it. i don't want them to get hardened to it, but i don't want them to freeze up every time they hear it. i want them to be comfortable enough around it that they can enjoy the company of people who believe differently than we do, but uncomfortable enough that they could gently and lovingly address it and start a conversation that might lead to them sharing their own beliefs. i don't know how to go about this exactly, but it's the direction we've decided to go. at least, for now.
but good thing for us, we have lucas...
lucas has recently become our "language police," as i've dubbed him. lucas doesn't know many words in general, but he is very sure of the words he is not supposed to say, and he reminds us all throughout the day that we "don't say stupid/poopie/po-po [our local name for bottom]." no, i'm not so prudish as to truly categorize these as "bad words," but they're not exactly words i want coming out of my 2 year olds' mouth every 2 seconds (which they were... and still are). and i never realized before how much i say the word stupid, but lucas catches me every time. he won't hear me yelling at him in his face to pick up his toys 3 times, but he will hear me mumble that something is "stupid" from across the neighborhood. so i guess it's good for me, right? but there have been some circumstances that so warranted the word "stupid" i had to ask lucas's forgiveness and explain that there just wasn't a kinder word.
how do you censor? how do you address things your kids encounter?
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1 comment:
Oooh good topic. I won.t use your comments section to delve into how we censor. But what we had to start doing with the word 'stupid' is tell our girls it was not acceptable to attribute that word to a person or to something that belongs to a person (their story, their idea, etc.). Because I was getting the same little person reminders that you get...and let's face it--'silly' is not always a good substitute for 'stupid'!
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