My Son the Word Police

We used to use different, more colorful words to describe our world before Zane was born. We are trying to keep Zane from using negative types of words, because he has been in trouble at school for calling other kids names. I figured that it would be easy to stop using the word stupid". It has proven difficult if not impossible.

I had no idea how many times the two of us use the word 'stupid' in normal conversations with each other. We don't usually call people stupid, it's things that get that label most often. My husband uses the word 'stupid' a lot mostly in reference to politics, for example. We call various behaviors 'stupid', such as when someone flips off a policeman and then runs into the police car. We call some ideas 'stupid'. And we call our cat Morris 'stupid' when he does things like run into a wall or fall off a window sill or try to bite the toilet paper in the bathroom.

The reason we are finding out that we use the word 'stupid' too much is because my son will tell us.

"Mama, not say 'stupid'," he will tell me if I use the word. He will scold Larry for the same thing.

You could argue with the boy, and talk to him about appropriate word usage. You could say that that particular word really applied to this situation. Zane will have none of it, and will chastise you verbally until you stop. It's best just to apologize and then change the subject. So now I have to carry around a thesaurus so I can look up words that are alternatives to 'stupid'.

On the plus side, my vocabulary skills are great!