Potty talk

The other week, Gus declared that Luke from his class was hilarious. So what did Luke do capture my youngest boy's sophisticated admiration? "He talks about butts a lot!" Ah, yes. Butts, farts, poop. They're the height of hilarity for kids of all ages.

I can't say I've always been above it all. When I was young, I also was a potty humor aficionado. My childhood best friend and I used to love to fill out Mad Libs. I think it's safe to say that we probably used the word poop as a noun, adjective, verb, and maybe even and adverb (the adverbs were always the trickiest, no?). And it made for pretty funny Mad Libs, if I do say so myself.

Here's the thing, though. Once, you have kids, words that used to seem fairly innocuous - think "stupid" - sound incredibly crude coming out of your darling moppet's mouth. I've been known to censor kids books while reading aloud, changing the word "stupid" to "silly." (What's up with putting the mild s-word in books for young kids, anyway?)

Sometimes we watch movies with Ben, who's 10, that have some questionable language. We always warn him to ignore those parts and remind him that the language is not appropriate. He's made it clear to us that he's heard it all before at school. Sadly, I'm sure that's true. Kids are kids are kids are kids. I think most will experiment with bad words at some time or another. Of course, that doesn't mean it should be left unchecked.

At our house, we've been experiencing a rash of potty talk. The biggest perpetrator has been Gus. The scene usually unfolds like this. It'll be supper time, and Gus will let loose with a series of bon mots: "poopy, poopy, potty, potty!" Then Paul will laugh uncontrollably. I sit there and get more and more annoyed, with Gus of course, and perhaps more so with Paul for encouraging it. All of this dinnertime entertainment is my comeuppance for my brothers and me driving my dad, especially, crazy with our own sparkling repartee at the table when we were growing up.

Of course, the dilemma with undesirable language always is whether to nag about it or ignore it. I do a little of both. I saw something recently about how important it is to let kids play uninterrupted, even if things get a bit raucous (or the talk turns to butts). I try to keep that in mind. I'll keep trying to steer my boys toward more polite talk, but sometimes I know it's important to just let them be. And that's the straight poop.