Friday morning rush to target….
· Park the car… CHECK!
· Get child out of car seat… CHECK!
· Find cart that doesn’t squeak…. CHECK!
· Place child in well oiled cart… CHECK!
You push off for the journey into the large maze and as your eyes dart around to decide where to begin, suddenly your child yells “Look Mommy!!! She’s a Pirate! She’s wearing a Pirate! A pirate!!!” (and the pointing begins…)
I glance in the direction my toddler is pointing and spot a poor women (I think this was a women) with an eye patch on, clearly embarrassed by my toddler calling out her disability and referring to her as a … ahem… pirate in the middle of a crowded store. I give my best smile/smirk/shrug and chuckle and speed off into the nearest aisle I can blend into.
Now as parents we ALL do our very best to control our potty mouths. My co-workers and close friends all know that I swear like a fat Irish man in a pub but around my toddler I usually have self control.
I have replaced “Oh My God” with “Oh My Heavens” and “Damn” with “Darnit”. But let’s face it, we all slip up and occasionally mutter “shit” when we can’t find our ATM card or forget to feed the dogs.
But how as parents do we curb those curious minds from connecting the dots that are so obvious to them?
· Child sees women with eye patch and calls her a pirate. I mean it makes sense doesn’t it?
· Child sees little person and yells “look mom a Munchkin!” Can ya blame them after watching the Wizard of Oz on repeat for 2 weeks?
The sad fact is that we can’t scold them for this. Sure we can explain that everyone is different and our differences make us unique but at the end of the day embarrassing moments like this are going to continue for a long while I imagine! Part of me never wants these moments to cease.
I think maybe we should embrace these moments because soon enough our innocent children will automatically censor their own fleeting thoughts just like the rest of the world….
For now I will try to enjoy the Pirate comments, the Munchkin mistakes and the fact that if I accidently say “shit”, my daughter usually says “Mommy, SHIT is a bad word. We don’t say that. Now you’re going on the naughty list….”
