We have a bonus kid spending the night tonight. The boys had been playing a bit of over-the-door basketball when George knocked his tooth on the doorknob. OUCH. It was an accident that could have happened to anyone but of course it happened to my Gentle George.

He has a low pain threshold on a good day. So add the excitement of his first friend sleepover and being overtired and you can imagine the recipe for disaster this created. As you do when you are hurt badly, George started crying. Luckily all teeth are accounted for and no blood was shed.

As he was recovering on my lap, our only child guest seemed a bit in shock of George’s response. He was sure George had said some bad words. He asked me if he did. George looked puzzled. He was sure he hadn’t. I assured George I didn’t hear any.

That’s when I got to witness the conversation between two 6 year olds trying to decipher which words were the bad words. There were some attempts at figuring first letters and spelling. Our friend is a good speller. There was counting. My George told me he knew three. Our friend told me he knew some, too. Apparently they could come up with 5 1/2 bad words between the two of them without actually saying any of them. This was…perplexing.

George asked if he could say them to me just to confirm if they were OK to say. Let ‘em rip.

But it’s the S word, Mom. 

Oh really?  You know that word? 

Our friend readily nods his head as does George. 

*George whispers in my ear* 
shut up 

You’re right, George. We try not to say that in our house. 

Our friend looks confused. 

And there’s another S word, Mom. 
*whispers even quieter* stupid

Our friend is even more confused now. 

Clearly our dear, George doesn’t pay attention to the words that regularly fly out of my mouth if he thinks shut up and stupid are THE S words.

*George with absolutely ZERO discretion*
Oh. And f*ck. That’s a bad one, too. But I don’t think it’s the S word.  

🫣😳

Um. Yes. That is absolutely a bad word and I don’t think you should say that one. 

Our friend asks for clarification and begins to spell said bad word.

Oh no!  Oh no!  No no no no. NO. Let’s not spell it. I heard. We aren’t going to say that word again. 

Now I hear them whispering in the bunk beds about monsters and video games…bad words hopefully long forgotten. I sure hope George doesn’t whip out that new bad word at school after spring break.