I Drew This

I had just strapped Little Misses L and M in the car this morning and was still waiting for C to get in. L hadn’t wanted to be strapped in but rather wanted to sit in the front seat. By using a stern tone and a menacing look I was able to coax her into the back seat and get her seat belt on.

Obviously, the exchange left her feeling powerless and frustrated and she said to me “Daddy, why do you have to be such a fuck?”

Shocked? Moi?

The little dear is only four. I was at least in grade one before I learnt that word. And then, I didn’t take it straight home and try it out on the folks.

So, after I’d stopped laughing, I tried to explain to her that it’s okay to say some rude words like poopoo, pop-off, barp (L’s word for fart) and bum but that word was extra rude and if she said that to people, some of them may hit her and really try to hurt her.

My view on swearing is that they’re great words. But as in most language, context is everything. Swear words are certainly useful. Some may argue they have no place in language and that only uneducated people use them.

This is bullshit. I have a degree and I use them all the time, so do many senior lecturers I’ve had the privilege of knowing. (My father-in-law may be the exception to the rule. A pharmacist and former teacher, I’ve never heard him use an expletive worse than ‘bloody’. But then, I’ve never seen him really pissed off so the jury’s still out.)

I think I have a healthy reverence for swear words and I only really pull them out when the traffic is particularly bad.

But back to Little Miss L…

I asked her later in the car, after we’d dropped off C, where she learnt that word (and some others she shared with me) and she said she picked them up at child care.

And I breathed a huge sigh of relief.