Oh Dear...

While 10% of America was glued to their television sets, waiting to find out who was the winner of the Iowa Caucuses, my wife and I were trying to figure out the best way out of a dilemma WE had created.

To begin the tale, let me start by saying that our daughter, Sophia, is the most precious thing in our daily lives. It seems that nearly every waking moment of her life is spent with one of us and we would never allow anything to harm her. We try our best to teach her the right things for a 16 month old should know. We play with her, we read her books, and we do everything in our power to make sure she is happy and has what she needs. We have a difficult time telling her "No", to anything that won't hurt her.

Now, on to the dilemma... Neither, Margaret, my wife, nor I claim to be saints. We both have our share of skeletons in our closets and have been known to slip an expletive or two into our daily conversation. Same goes for most of our friends and families. Good people. We all will do whatever it takes to get a stranger out of danger. We give to charities, put a buck or two into the Salvation Army kettle at Christmas time, (and no, we do not ask for a receipt).

The other day, sweet little Sophia was playing with (throwing her various toys) at the floor. We were laughing at her doing this because she doesn't throw things too hard at this point. I should say, we were laughing UNTIL...

Until we realized what she was saying. with each throw she was saying "shit". Immediately we both tried to correct the behavior and get her to say "shoot" or "shucks". This effort did nothing but bring out her beautiful laughter which is contagious. We would laugh when she laughed and she again would say "shit". The corrective actions continued for nearly 30 minutes. We would try to get her involved in a different toy or book, to which she would participate with for a moment, and then take it from us, throw it and say "shit". Finally, we got her interested in some treats to eat, but I fear this is positive reinforcement to an undesireable behavior.

Since this first incident, she has begun a ritual of saying "shit", anytime she wants a laugh from mom or dad, or even to announce, "I am awake now and require your attention". It is nearly impossible to not laugh at her saying this word, and several nights later she repeated the action at Grandma LaNan's house with books. It isn't that she wasn't the center of attention, because she was. She was doing it for pure enjoyment of making people laugh. My wife and I promised each other long before Sophia began immitating us that a swear word would not be the first thing out of her mouth (not counting the creamed peas - bleh). Well, we succeeded in that, she has mama, dada and bye-bye that beat her to the first word. But seriously, the fourth word a cuss word. Please, there has to be a linguist out there that can explain to me why this is such a fulfilling word to use at any stage of our lives. All in all, she could have chosen a different, more embarrassing word to use, and I am glad she didn't do that. The situation we face is how to correct this behavior now before it is ingrained into her vocabulary and we get a call from her preschool teacher informing us of the colorful vocabulary our daughter has at three years old. I guess home schooling has a place in all of this, but as a parent I would have to give myself a failing grade so far. Any words of comfort or wisdom will be greatly appreciated.