THE “BAD WORD” JAR

Some houses have a jar for curse words. We have a similar jar, (mug, actually) but it’s for what I consider to be “bad” words that my kids say. I should have nipped this in the bud a long time ago, but I didn’t, so this here is my goal this summer for my two 10 year old boys:

• Stop talking about their private body parts ALL THE TIME, and
• stop calling each other names.

So the words that they are not allowed to say are:

• penis
• anus
• idiot
• retard (recently added)

Every time they say one of these words, they must put a quarter into the Bad Word Jar. It’s only been a little over a week, and I already have a couple of bucks.

But here’s the really funny part. (Melissa couldn’t stop laughing at this one!) A little while after I told them this list of words, they came up to me and (in complete seriousness) asked me what word they could use instead of anus. Could they use wiener instead? Keeping a straight face, I asked them what they thought an anus was, and they both, simultaneously, pointed to their penises. I lost it! I tried to stay serious, I really did, but I failed miserably! I had tears running down my face! They were very confused, to say the least! But I finally calmed down enough to explain to them the proper meaning of the word and they now have several other words they can use. Thank goodness!

So wish me luck on achieving my goals this summer. I have a feeling I’ll be adding more words to the list as they get more creative with their vocabulary! And I’ll probably be explaining more of these words to them, too!

Karen