Be Careful What You Wish For
As with every rite of passage for kids growing up, especially boys, we tend to exercise what we feel is our right to speak our mind. More precisely our right to use words we don't get to usually use. We find situations and emotions to apply these words to, such as surprise, anger, sadness, and just the inclusion into every other sentence we can as it makes us feel older.
As I am sure you have guessed, these words are typically curse words that we have been told are bad words and should not be used. Needless to say, telling a teenager not to do something is almost guaranteed to produce the opposite effect. Well the same thing holds true apparently for a 5 year old who hangs out with them. Now of course hearing a five year old say, "What the F@ck" at first seems funny or perhaps watching him struggle with something and hearing him say, "F@ck, F@ck, F@ck" in response to it definitely brings some chuckles.
Now for Aidan, a couple of years ago I do remember saying that i don't care what words come out of his mouth as long as he speaks. I remember also saying I don't care what food or snacks he puts in his mouth as long as he eats as he did not eat real food on his own until he was 2. You have to be careful what you wish for in life as when you get your wish it may not be exactly as you had hoped for. Aidan does love candy and cookies and things he shouldn't have and sometimes it's a chore to get him to eat healthy food.
But more recently he has come to know the F-word in all of its forms and uses better than most other words thanks to a great group of teenagers who are coming into manhood. I am sure, as they develop into even better young men, they will learn that using the F-word in every sentence is not necessary, and perhaps they will find new and better words that Aidan will learn to say and use.
Aidan is smart enough to know its a bad word and that he can get a time out for using it. He does also use it when wanting some attention. Therapists say to just ignore it, no laughing, no time out, make believe it was never said. Sometimes this is harder than it sounds.
