The Power Words

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I think there are two kinds of swearing.  There are really offensive words or tasteless words, which I avoid.  Or, there are the power words one can find in the bible.   I used to give myself full permission to use power words--don't look if offended easily--which are hell and damn.  However, I'm rethinking my position.  Yesterday, I kept it cool when IJ pushed a stick in the spinning bottom of a vacuum, stuck a stick in his sisters face to tell her he was going to "kill her",  got mud all over his new suitcase,  and peed in the garage. Yes,  I was fine.  However, it was the demonstration of his new found racquet ball which put me in the power play.  He threw the ball so it landed right in my rising rolls. If the videos in heaven got it fully, I would admit to letting a shriek, followed by heaving the ball across the kitchen with a power dammit/forceful removal of one child.  I felt awful. He cried while I apologized.  It just doesn't feel good.  Maybe I will leave the power moves and words with professionals. 

Comments

Blondie said…
I've been guilty of using a particular "power word" to excess. I guess I really shouldn't have been shocked when I heard my son use it one day, but I was.
I explained that he shouldn't say that because it is a swear word, to which he replied with wide eyes, "It is?! But you say it all the time."

Don't you hate it when you're compelled to be humble?
March 12, 2008 at 10:28 AM
My Voice Marshfield said…
What a great story! I was just in a little RS acting exercise portraying Marjorie Hinckley who--you guessed it--had a similar moment of her own. Her daughter had a friend over, they were about 12, being sassy and acting like 12 yr olds and she finally lost it and said "Damn you girls!" Then recovered--"Did I say that out loud?". She washed her own mouth out with soap, apologized to all children present and then sat in her room and cried. Come on--is there really a mother out there who can't relate to that?

My solution? I am asking for a punching bag for my birthday. Jacob keeps asking me and i keep saying the same thing--and i want him to hang it up right away and buy me some tough looking fingerless gloves to go with it. (They don't really have to be tough, just tough looking). He is finally starting to believe me. The older i get the larger grows the circle of angry days around my cursed monthly time and sometimes i can't even believe how mad i feel. I'll let you know if the punching bag helps. I figure the kids can use it too.
March 17, 2008 at 12:26 PM
Carolyn said…
I have been more mean to my own children than to anyone else on the planet. I'm getting better as they (and I) get older. Where my parenting of young boys is concerned, I am really not looking forward to looking at my videos in heaven.

p.s. I'm impressed that you bake rolls. I haven't done that (successfully) in years--my last batch included dead yeast and my family graciously munched on the resulting rocks.
April 1, 2008 at 11:48 PM
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