I was cooking the other night with Ruby and Darby. They were sitting on either side of me on the counter, helping throw veggies in the salad.
Ruby casually says" So mom, today I was at K's house ( BFF) with Darby and we were all dancing to that Justin Bieber song...you know..the one that goes..baby,babyoohh......Anyway mom, the Chipmunks were singing it instead of Justin Bieber and they sang 'STAR F_ _ _K' in the song."
I choked on a cucumber but calmly told her that it would be highly unlikely that either Justin Bieber or Alvin,Theodore and Simon would say F_ _ K.
"Really mommy, they say 'STAR F_ _ K'." Says Darbs in her casual 4 year old way.
Chloe came downstairs at the end of the conversation and trying desperately to stifle her laughter calmly told them that the word in question was STAR STRUCK.
The two little girls looked at each other and laughed. They told Chloe that STAR STRUCK didn't make any sense.
Ahhhh but STAR F_ _K does?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
The minds of kids are fascinating. How could I get mad? They were just repeating what they THOUGHT they heard.
It was a learning/teaching point. I pointed out that the F -word was a "not nice" word that no decent Chipmunk or teeny bop singer would EVER use...especially in a little girl dance song. Then we listened to it. Then I told them what star struck meant in the context of the song.
They were satisfied and I was left wondering why they didn't think the Chipmunks were singing "STARBUCKS".
Bad word are a part of our society and we'd be naive to think that our kids won't hear them... in the home.. on TV.. on the school playground .. from older siblings... from cranky post call moms (oops) .. from songs like those featured on the HIP HOP sat radio station ( TURN IT OFF CHLOE!!).
It depends on how your child USES them that will pick the parenting skill to end the use of FOUR LETTER WORDS. And..I don't mean whether or not he uses them in a grammatically correct way.
If a child is saying a bad word over and over for effect, then the best thing you can do is ignore it. Well, and disguise it in public.."Really that's his word for TRUCK".
Ignoring the behavior will cause it to extinguish. Simple to say...hard to do.
Kids that just say it because they've overheard it can just be told very openly that "BAD WORDS" are words that people should NOT use and that you don't want the child to use those words. Avoid if you can, going through the "George Carlin" list of bad words. I think this would do more damage than good.
Also, be honest. Tell them what the word is "slang" for and give them other options. " SH_T, means poo-poo and I'd rather you tell mommy you have to POO-POO than SH_T. This unsolicited advice is aged based obviously.
Liza asked me a few years ago if she could ask Santa for a "Disco Stick". You know the one in the lady GaGa song ( I wanna take a ride on your disco stick). I calmly explained that Lady G was indeed using the word "Disco Stick" to mean PENIS. I told her that I would NOT expect her to get on Santa's lap and ask for a "Disco Stick" for this reason. SHE WAS MORTIFIED. She thanked me for telling her and turned the station whenever the song came on.
Clearly, I reserve such blunt explanation when listening to Darby sing " I want to touch your Peacock..Cock..Cock.." THANKS KATY PERRY I just told her that Peacocks were mean birds and that we should sing PIZZA...I want to eat some PIZZA..ZA..ZA..ZA.
When Ruby sings " Sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me"...I throw up in my mouth..SILENTLY curse Rhianna...and wish for the days that we happily and without fear listened to THE WIGGLES. I have nothing for that one.
Sad, but songs, siblings, potty mouthed moms, TV , U-tube, i-phones etc are influencing our kids language in many ways. Just BE AROUND to redirect the fall out and be selective if you can to what the children are exposed to in their world. That said...It's impossible to shelter the 4 and 5 year olds exposure from the 10 and 13 year olds world. I just do my best prevention and even more important ...my best damage control..
STAR F_CK?? REALLY?? THAT MAKES
No comments:
Post a Comment