It seems swearing goes in and out of fashion with Colwyn. I swear way too much, that I know.. but aside from a few naughty words 6+ months ago, Colwyn had been very good about not repeating all the inappropriate things I say. But lately.. oy. Occasionally I'll hear him saying something that sounds suspiciously like "sucks" (he could actually be mispronouncing an even naughtier word, who knows). And yesterday, when I said, "Dammit!" at the dinner table because Lachlann had squeezed his juicebox out onto his tray of untouched food, Colwyn piped up with his own, "Dammit!" I promptly told him we don't say that word, and that I was very sorry for saying it, too. Colwyn responded, "Okay, Mommy, I'll just say Mammit! Mammit! Mammit!" It was probably the wrong thing to do, but I told him it was fine to say mammit.

Also yesterday, Colwyn was in the car with my parents, and my mother exclaimed, "Oh my f-ing head!" (I won't explain why.. it's a long story involving my grandmother getting out of her car which was in a funeral procession and knocking on the window of the limo at the front of the line), and Colwyn repeated it perfectly. My dad had the presence of mind to tell him, "Oh, Amma said Fox's Head, ha ha ha. Fox's Head!" Right. :)

And then today, I noticed that our dog had made a small rip in our couch. I started to say "Oh God dammit" but stopped myself after the "Oh!" So Colwyn, helpful boy that he is, finished my thought with a giggle and his own, "God dammit!" Normally I'm very good at maintaining my composure, but I couldn't help laughing.

Tonight at work, I came across an article about kids learning to swear from their parents, and this paragraph just cracked me up:

"Oh, I tried. Really, I did. I attempted to follow the admirable example of Lee Snodgrass (Ma Generation zine) and use euphemisms. But "cheese and rice" never sprang to my lips as readily as "Jesus Christ" did. And the first time I resorted to, "Bucket!" in a moment of stress, Nate giggled and chanted, "Fuck it-bucket! Fuck it-bucket!" He took to yelling this unsavory phrase at dinner, at my parents' house, and in the grocery store. The raised eyebrows of everyone within hearing range made it clear that "bucket" in no way mitigated "fuck it." They knew, all right. Someone had been a bad influence."

So glad to know that I'm not the only one.