Last night at the dinner table, Benjamin wanted to announce that he'd like to be excused to go to the restroom.
"I need to, let's see..." he said. "I don't want to use any swear words, but I just might have to. Nope. I can do it without swearing. I need to go make some violent waters with my penis!"
I almost spat out my dinner.
"Violent waters?" I sputtered, suppressing as much giggling as possible.
"Yeah, I didn't want to say..." he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Pee."
Obviously we need to have a discussion about what words constitute swear words and which words are simply rude. It's a complicated subject because it's more of a spectrum than a black-and-white principle. He's always saying things like, "That person ran a red light so they are definitely driving like the s-word." But when he says that, see, he means *whispers* stupid, which isn't a swear word. It's just a rude word that we don't use at our house.
"So, pee isn't a swear word," I told Benjamin. "But it is a potty word, which isn't exactly polite at the dinner table, but you know what? It's probably more polite to say pee at the dinner table than it is to say the word penis because talking about private parts at the dinner table is also kind of rude."
"Urine is what you would say if you wanted to avoid using the word pee," Andrew said. "Not...violent waters."
This was, naturally, followed by Zoë clarifying the anatomy of boys versus girls and then morphed into what the polite word for 'poop' was, followed by many jokes about 'stools.'
And then we told the children that they could simply ask to be excused to use the bathroom without giving a lengthy explanation of what they planned to accomplish in the bathroom and that would be perfectly acceptable.
Oddly enough, earlier in the day Rachel was asking me about when it was acceptable to excuse herself. She knew to excuse herself for toots. But what about burps? What about sneezes? Coughs? Hiccups? Tummy grumbles? Involuntary screaming?
I told her that it is always acceptable to excuse ones self for involuntary body noises.
So it was a wonderful Mother's Day.
(How do my children not know these things yet?)
"I need to, let's see..." he said. "I don't want to use any swear words, but I just might have to. Nope. I can do it without swearing. I need to go make some violent waters with my penis!"
I almost spat out my dinner.
"Violent waters?" I sputtered, suppressing as much giggling as possible.
"Yeah, I didn't want to say..." he lowered his voice to a whisper, "Pee."
Obviously we need to have a discussion about what words constitute swear words and which words are simply rude. It's a complicated subject because it's more of a spectrum than a black-and-white principle. He's always saying things like, "That person ran a red light so they are definitely driving like the s-word." But when he says that, see, he means *whispers* stupid, which isn't a swear word. It's just a rude word that we don't use at our house.
"So, pee isn't a swear word," I told Benjamin. "But it is a potty word, which isn't exactly polite at the dinner table, but you know what? It's probably more polite to say pee at the dinner table than it is to say the word penis because talking about private parts at the dinner table is also kind of rude."
"Urine is what you would say if you wanted to avoid using the word pee," Andrew said. "Not...violent waters."
This was, naturally, followed by Zoë clarifying the anatomy of boys versus girls and then morphed into what the polite word for 'poop' was, followed by many jokes about 'stools.'
And then we told the children that they could simply ask to be excused to use the bathroom without giving a lengthy explanation of what they planned to accomplish in the bathroom and that would be perfectly acceptable.
Oddly enough, earlier in the day Rachel was asking me about when it was acceptable to excuse herself. She knew to excuse herself for toots. But what about burps? What about sneezes? Coughs? Hiccups? Tummy grumbles? Involuntary screaming?
I told her that it is always acceptable to excuse ones self for involuntary body noises.
So it was a wonderful Mother's Day.
(How do my children not know these things yet?)
Gah!! Really bad typing! What I meant to type was "Now people might be wondering about why I am giggling in my office, but would it be polite to tell them?"
ReplyDeletei just woke up Ruth with my laughing. 😁
ReplyDelete