building vocabulary

Penny said her first cuss word today. Properly too, I might add. While carrying a couple of empty pots around the living room, she tripped and dropped them. Then we heard, "Oh shit" calmly carrying through to the kitchen. Not an exclamatory interjection. More a statement of fact. She then proceeded to drop things on purpose and use this phrase approximately 47 times in a 15 minute period. I can already hear my mom. 


Jamie, I can't believe you would use such language around your precious little baby! And enough that she picked it up! AND can use it correctly!!!  


Yes, multiple exclamation points would be needed. 


My mom is obviously overlooking the fact that my daughter is so smart she can use "shit" correctly in a sentence before she's even two years old. That's a genius child, right there. And Penny wasn't using it to shock. She didn't even look at us to see our reactions. She was just talking to herself. She just happened to be swearing when she did it.


But yes, I do use such language around my child. Not on purpose. OK, wait. Yes. Sometimes on purpose. But it's like when we as parents agreed that we were going to try not to teach her the word "no" for as long as possible. Then the first time she's about to stick a car key into the blu-ray player you forget all about using phrases like "Please, don't do that" and "I really wish you wouldn't." Uh-uh. Instead you yell NO as loudly as you can because we all know babies have selective hearing. 


The point is, it just slips out. When she was born I didn't get all excited about the new and inventive swear words I could teach her. But I'm human, and a potty mouth, and sometimes it just happens. 


So Jason and I have agreed that we're going to be much more careful about the words we choose to use around her. The little sponge just soaks up everything. And instead of telling her how proud I am of her that she can use that word correctly, I'm just going to ignore it and hopefully it'll go away. 


But for the record, I'm so proud!