When Caitlin was about 18 months old, we started her in speech therapy. She had been diagnosed with a speech delay (which, it turns out, was less about ability and more about willingness. She’s been strong willed from the get-go). She is completely fine now, of course (in fact, a little too fine if you ask her teacher, ahem). However because of her issue, I found myself worrying about Hannah and Ben’s speech around 18 months as well. With Matthew, though, it was different. Whether it was his proximity in age to Caitlin, or an inherent need to communicate, by the age of five, the boy had mastered a pretty darn good set of words. He was talking about “Cessna airplanes” and “Monster Trucks” by the time he was two. I loved to hear him talk, and it was such a relief not to worry about his vocabulary.
Until now.
This past weekend on our way to Elachee, I heard Matthew, in a sweet sing-song voice, chanting, “F---er! F---er! F----er!”. I think it had been going on for a while before it registered for Matt and me…but when it did Matt nearly drove off the road and we both exploded at Matthew:
“MATTHEW! WHAT??!! ARE!! YOUSAYING!!??!!?!!! WHY? NO!! BAD!! NO!! WE DO NOT SAY THOSE UGLY UGLY WORDS!! WHO/WHERE/WHEN DID YOU HEAR THAT WORD!??!!”
Poor Matthew, who had no idea what the hell was going on (I’m a grown up. I can say that) looked so confused. However he had picked up on the fact that perhaps he had done something wrong and was hunched down behind Caitlin waiting for the inevitable (but confusing) grounding from baseball. (The poor child thought he had just made up a clever new word.) Eventually we calmed down and explained the whole thing to him and expected that we had done the trick. There would be no more potty words from him.
Not so much.
This afternoon he came home from school, and in the middle of grammar homework (how fitting) asked me if ‘B---h’ was a bad word. (I’m starting to wonder if I’m getting played here.) Apparently he had learned this little gem from a friend at school.
Parent conferences are this week…I have a feeling I may be in for something special. I’ll let you know.
Bahahahahaha!!! That is sooo funny !!!!!! Poor Matthew..... Please tell how conference goes!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHahahaha! That reminds me of the time when I was little and I said to my mom as we were driving down the road, "I know what f*ck means." Needless to say she nearly drove off the road.
ReplyDeleteI wouldn't worry too much about it. I think it's something about boys that age. Ollie is OBSESSED with curse words right now. Not so much saying them, but asking about them and telling on people and finding them in print. It'll pass. ;)