Oh Fudge

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Well, my two year old has a remarkable vocabulary for his age. He just turned two in August, and he is already talking in complete sentences, and has a vocabulary of at least a couple of hundred words. His vocabulary expanded this weekend in an unfortunate direction.

We were at my parents' house, and he dropped his really sticky lollipop onto my parents carpet, where it stuck fast. After trying unsuccessfully to pull it out, he proclaimed, "Oh fudge!" ... only he didn't say "fudge".

No one responded to the comment, but all eyes in the room immediately shot an angry glare in my direction. This was, evidently, entirely my fault. (I concede that there is some evidence that would lead one to that conclusion.) The only defense I could muster was: At least he used it in the correct context...

So I'm in pretty big trouble with the wife now, which follows one of the basic rules of marriage: When more than one person is to blame, the husband will be held at fault.

 

Jeez man, that is rough. Can you blame it on TV or anything (or does he not watch it yet?)? At least you know he is intelligent enough to be able to figure out what words you (if it was, in fact, you who he was listening to) use when frustrated.

Could it have been your wife? Or does she say certain 4 letter words that being with 'f'?

In any case, I think the best thing would be to explain to him not to use that word, and then try to not use it yourself so he hears that you are not using it anymore.

 

That sucks dude. You have my pity. I catch myself all the time, especially when driving, using the "wrong" words in front of my 2 yr old. She is repeating everything we say, including my "Fat Cow" comment about my neighbor. She was pointing at her from afar and said "Mommy, that Fat Cow!". I got the Medusa stare for that one. My original comment was muttered under my breath, but somehow she processed it. You really gotta watch what you say around them. And your right, you will ALWAYS be to blame, I know that feeling Aldeth!

 

Ashley's the same. I'm sure kids know EXACTLY which words you don't want repeating!

One of the tame things he came out with was 'Daddy's a plonker' however, he's called people a knob-head before and told people to bugger off... as well as various other (and much worse) things!

 

Maybe you should explain to your son that, rather than saying f**k, he should use the much-more-acceptable s**t instead.

 

Well, we didn't even acknowledge his comment. Our thinking is that if we make a big to do about it, it may actually make him do it more to get that reaction. He talks way too much the way it is. He was talking baby talk forever, and now that he has this talking thing figured out, he certainly has a lot to say about everything.

He wanted to play catch with me the other day when I was in the middle of something, and I told him I'd do it in a minute when I was finished. Just as I finished, the phone rang, and I told him to hold on while I get the phone, to which he exclaimed, "Now what?"

While I am not completely innocent here, I still think this isn't entirely my fault. My wife has been known to drop the F-bomb as well, and he spends a heck of a lot more time around her than he does around me (I'm at work all day).

 

That's a tough one. I think your right in that if you tried to correct him, he would probably end up saying it more, just for the reaction. Ignoring him might come back to haunt you as well. Now he might think it's ok to use it. Good luck with that one! I was worried when our little one started yelling at the cat, mimicing me of course! Though, to be honest, I can't wait for the 1st time she curses. Hopefully it will be a hoot! But we will correct her immediately. At least, I know the wife will.

 

That reminds me of the time my daughter described, in great detail and using scientifically correct terms, all the places on her body that her bathing suit covered.

It was her mother who'd gone over that stuff, so I didn't get the Glare, but overall I agree -- women don't take responsibility for a blasted thing -- it's easier to blame everything on men.

 

I hope you said it in a proud father's voice -- if you're going to take some sh*t for such a statement, you should really make it memorable.

On a related note, T3V1 has taken to saying "DAMN IT!" -- and actually at the appropriate times (albeit at inappropriate places).

 

You know what solves the bad language problem? A good beating...you know what solves the problem of a woman who glares at you too much?...A good beating...

I am of course kidding not being a parent yet I have no idea how I would react in this situation but from my experience of kids shouting at them only makes them more annoying...I like to think I have my swearing pretty well under control, but I think my child will have a messed up idea of how the language works cos of all the substitutes I use

 

Just have to get on with it. If you're kid's swearing then the chances are he got it from you. I know Ash got 'knob-head' form Rob and 'bugger off' from me. C'est la vie

 

My 1.5 year old nephew has said 's***' upon dropping a toy and it was probably more or less my fault. I'm amazed he understood what it meant too, because I've never dropped a Thomas the train toy and cussed.

I'm also not held accountable at all, and feel like it is my duty to corrupt/spoil him so it makes his mother go crazy. If it goes too far though I take the appropriate action with the little snot-head

 

I can perceive not a little bit of pride in your description of your son's "bad" behaviour Aldeth, and rightly so. Do not understand what all the fuss is about "bad" language. Sure kids or anyone for that matter using words for shock value alone or just to tic people off is annoying but if he used it at an appropriate time I do not understand the problem. Oh fudge, or frick, or freaking means the same fking thing so really do not see how they can be better.

Screw the uptight women and be proud of your sons vocabulary

 

Well, it wasn't so much that I was proud of him, but rather that I was perplexed why A) everyone thought it was my fault and B) everyone thought it was a much bigger deal than I did. I agree that fudge or frick mean the same thing, and are not really any better, but my point was even more basic: I remember from when I was a kid that I knew what those words were, and how to use them appropriately, but I just didn't use them around my parents.

Even if Jack didn't know how to correctly use an F-bomb when he was two, he probably would have by the time he was three or four. And by that time, he would also probably learn that he shouldn't say it in polite company. That's the thing - I think most parents don't like their kids to curse because they worry they will do it when out in public and embarrass them. He'll learn soon enough that he shouldn't say those words out in public, and while it is not something I'm going to encourage, it's also not something I'm going to lose sleep over.

In the grand scheme of things, it's not even the most important thing for me to correct in Jack's behavior at the moment, as we are working on getting him to use the toilet, with limited success thus far. As far as I'm concerned, if I had to choose between Jack dropping the occassional F-bomb, and continuing to change poopy diapers, it wouldn't be a difficult decision.

I still think the main reason why I'm in trouble over this is because I thought it was really funny.

 

LMFAO!!!

When Jr. starts spouting curses, there's always a hierarchy of who the blame goes to: #1 is the father, #2 is the grandpa(s), and #3 is the uncle(s).

I'm personally responsible for unexpectedly teaching all of my nieces many bad words and phrases over the years.

 

While driving home from daycare yesterday with my girls in the back, I slipped, calling another driver an effing d-bag, though I did not say effing, I used the much maligned 4-letter F word. Whoops! My 2 yr old immediately repeated it. She's perceptive! I am usally pretty good at restraining myself around them, but not today. When we got home, she was whispering it to herself while playing with her blocks. My wife starts to listen to her, then gives me the dirtiest look ever given on this planet. It's a trademark saying for me when I am driving. People just can't drive in Northern Illinois. Hopefully, one day, they will figure out that there are "Turn Signals" implemented into the whole driving experience. There is no getting out of this predictament. So I tell the wife, " No big deal, she only says it to blondes driving Red Ford Explorers." My little one immediately pops up and says " Mommy, effing d-bag" out loud and laughs. Doghouse, here I come.

 

Yeah, now you're the effing d-bag. If it makes you feel any better, Jack has greatly reduced his f-bombing. We ignored it at first, but it continued, so everytime he said it, we told him how disappointed we were that he would say that, and it isn't very nice thing to do. Suprisingly, that actually worked.

 

My wife and I immediately explained to her that it's not nice to say those words and she looked a bit confused. But didn't repeat it. So far. My fingers are crossed and hopefully she'll just forget it, but I doubt we'll be that lucky. Becoming a father in your thirties makes it tough to change your ways. Generally, I don't have any reactions to anything that are negative, except when I drive. It's my pet peeve. I hate those that don't obey the law. Plus, there's just a certain etiquette to driving, like moving out of the righthand lane that merges with the on ramp of a highway when possible. That should be basic common sense, but apparently not for Illinois drivers. Frustrating.

Lesson learned though, keep my trap shut while driving.... or turn the radio up a bit.

 

And I usually have Comedy on the radio to boot! I'm going to have to rethink this whole gameplan. Next thing you know, she'll be dropping some Richard Pryor one liners on us. Time for the portable DVD player to be on non-stop. I'll be in "Elmo hell", but that's better than her dropping f-bombs.