Curses!

The d-word was uttered in the back seat by my six-year old this week and I found myself in uncharted mommy waters. You would think by now that this should be a parenting lay-up. Your kid swears, they get punished.

Yet I found myself in my "talking spot" with my son on the sofa fumbling over the words on how to explain why he is was in trouble. He knew it was wrong, I knew it was wrong. But how do I explain in a way that's meaningful? Here's how it went...

Me: You know why you are in trouble, right?
Him: (Sad cow eyes) Nodding somberly.
Me: You know why you're not supposed to say those words right?
Him: (even sadder) Sort of.
Me: Okay, well, we we um, don't say those words because they are bad. And it's not right to swear. And it's not right to swear because people will think you are bad.

(In my head all the while -- bad is the best you can do? Isn't there some lofty parenting principal about character or integrity or some other important sounding word on why we really should swear. *!!@@* - that's me swearing in my head because I can't think of something really good to say.)

I guess I'm shocked that we are already now in the curse phase. I thought that didn't come until about 10 years old. So I guess I sort of blew my teachable moment.

Hopefully he will curse again soon so I can work on it and have something really inspiring to say next time.