A friend of mine commented the other day that your kids can be ugly little mirrors. By that, she meant you see the worst of your behaviour reflected in what they do and say. We've had a few incidents this week that have made me a wee bit more conscious of what comes out of my mouth.Incident 1
The girls and I had popped down the shops for a few things. Waiting to get charged $2 for daring to take money out of someone else's ATM, someone came up behind Olivia and startled her. "Fok!" said she.
Although an appropriate commentary on bank charges, I wasn't sure I'd heard correctly, so I asked, "What did you say, Liv?"
"Fok, Mummy. He scared me!"
Oh dear.
Incident 2
I'm a...well, let's call it 'assertive'...driver. I greatly dislike people who drive slowly in the right lane, slow for green lights and general idiocy. But I'll be trying to voice my frustration internally after hearing Olivia join me in berating other motorists.
"C'mon people! What are you doing? Get out of my way!" pipes the little backseat driver. She's even perfected the 'up-palm' (the exaggerated 'what on earth was that?' hand gesture).
Again, oh dear.
Incident 3
My lovely hubby is also an assertive driver...a little more so than me, as evidenced by Olivia's contribution to his communication with other drivers:
"Oh, for fok's sake!"
Needless to say, we are both washing out our mouths with soap and watching our manners a little more when we're in the car. Ugly little mirrors, indeed.
If you're a parent, what have your kids done that has made you think about your behaviour?
5 comments:
#1
I am loving Britney Spears latest album and have it playing in the car. Emmie (3yo) has been singing 'Love Me, Hate Me all the boys all the girls' luckily she hasn't repeated the line 'if you seek amy'! Fearing she might share this song at nursery I stupidly said to her "Hun don't sing that, it's a bit rude". Now all I hear in the car is "mummy, put the rude song on!" THANK GOD she doesn't understand it, but I still feel terrible!
#2
I'm with you on the driving thing! It's a horrible thing to have your 3 year old beat you to the mark with 'stupid witch' (she doesn’t realise I say bitch – I don’t know which one is worst!) and 'bloody hell' when someone cuts in front of you in traffic. Geez, I really have to work on my language and patience in the car!
As a frequent user of colourful language while driving, I've been trying to get myself in the habit of toning it down before my daughter absorbs it.
I vividly remember that my own mum used to call other drivers "tarts", and I thought it was hilarious (thinking that she was referring to these people as baked goods, of course).
teehee.
My favourite term for other drivers is "tosser". Especially for hoons that rev past at breakneck speeds. Whenever the kids hear loud revving, they say "tosser!". They now believe all motorcyclists and drivers with rotaries and some buses are tossers. I try to explain but it's no use....
I used to swear about the house in a foreign language, but they started using these particularly bad words as well so I had to stop that. Is nothing sacred?
This post made me laugh out loud - FOK!
I love the driving commentary. I am very vocal when driving, am surprised Noah doesn't pick it up more.. Or maybe he does and he's just saving it up.
One of my recent incidents - I dropped something on the floor, I can't remember what but it wasn't good, and loudly said - oh shit! The next thing I hear Noah saying - shit. Shiiiit. Shitttt. Sampling how it sounded. OOPS!
The hubs and I are now realizing we need to start censoring ourselves as the little man is seconds away from talking I feel. Oh fok!
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