Son of a Gun!

Mom, I totally heard that. God heard it too.

When Aiden was first born, and even when I was pregnant, I was hyper aware of the language I used and even what people around me were saying, as if his little brain were going to absorb any foul words and put them in a vault for use in kindergarten. I don't swear a lot, but I will occasionally if I'm in a particularly frustrated mood (this is something Sean likes to hold over me, as it would take a 747 dropping out of the sky and directly onto our kitchen for him to utter a swear word).

I think college is probably the culprit when it comes to my language indiscretions (I once had a professor who couldn't go two sentances without dropping an f-bomb). Being surrounded by it all day kind of makes you numb to it, which is not good when you're coming home to someone just learning words.

I have friends who have parents that always swore in front of them, but I did not. I vividly remember the only time I heard my mother swear when I was a child: she had driven my brother and I two hours to a water park only to realize she'd left her credit card at home. Only then did I catch a low whoosh of breathe that vaguely sounded like "sonofab-". I remember being in middle school the first time I ever said something you couldn't say on television and it actually made my mouth burn.

It's a sad commentary on our society that people have become so accustomed to swearing that they do it without thought, and expressing offense at it makes you look old fashioned. I'm always disappointed when I slip up, because I'm proud of having a varied and expansive vocabulary, and this type of language has become such crutch for Americans.

Needless to say, as Aiden enters into this highly impressionable period, I'm doing my best to reduce this language from 'occasionally' to 'never...except when that 747 drops out of the sky'. I'm trying to consciously replace the bad words with okay words, and I'm getting much better about it. It's still funny to hear my adult self saying things like "Cheese and rice!" "No good dirt bag!" and "Shut the front door!". (That last one is particularly satisfying to say, I don't know why, but Laura and I have fully embraced it). Other people definitly look sideways at you when you say them in public, but I'll take that any day if it means Aiden can embrace a decent vocabularly.