"You're Freaking Crazy"

[Blarg]

For someone complaining about making much ado about nothing, I think you're making much too much ado about nothing. Nobody said a fart was a soul-destroying capital crime. It was just a joke, but plenty good enough to illustrate that kids don't have a lot of judgment, so you should be careful not to expect them to make fine distinctions about what's acceptable and when until they get a few more years on them. Ergo, don't do anything around them you aren't perfectly happy to have them repeat around others at any and all times.

Seems a reasonable idea.

Are you being defensive because you just got caught farting in the elevator again? The trick is to enjoy it, silly, otherwise don't do it at all.

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
For someone complaining about making much ado about nothing, I think you're making much too much ado about nothing. Nobody said a fart was a soul-destroying capital crime. It was just a joke, but plenty good enough to illustrate that kids don't have a lot of judgment, so you should be careful not to expect them to make fine distinctions about what's acceptable and when until they get a few more years on them. Ergo, don't do anything around them you aren't perfectly happy to have them repeat around others at any and all times.

Seems a reasonable idea.

Are you being defensive because you just got caught farting in the elevator again? The trick is to enjoy it, silly, otherwise don't do it at all.

[/ QUOTE ]

hehe.....

I fully accept your chiding for my mini-rant, and consider myself hoisted by my own petard.

As we used to say, "He who smelt it, dealt it".

[img]/images/graemlins/smirk.gif[/img]

With brief seriousness however, Don't you sometimes get repulsed by all of the PC crap going around these days?

[Blarg]

All the time. Usually I alternate between it making me miserable about what we're doing to ourselves with it, and angry. It's hard to laugh it off as easily as I laugh off other things.

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
All the time. Usually I alternate between it making me miserable about what we're doing to ourselves with it, and angry. It's hard to laugh it off as easily as I laugh off other things.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ahhhhhh.....A soul-mate?

So perhaps my mini-rant stuck a familiar chord or two?

[Blarg]

Yeah. That sort of thing bugs me a lot. That so little effort often seems to go into moral considerations in life, and then when it does, it winds up going into a feigned morality instead of the real thing, and comes out as more or less gloating and an extremely aggressive and unprovoked one-upsmanship, seems utterly perverse to me. Trying to cure it through ridicule, one of the only ways likely to even make a dent, is tremendously unsatisfying because it echoes the bad faith and bad behavior it seems to protest. Just yuck all around.

[John Cole]

The above is "freaking" hilarious, and I agree completely. Of course, I wish I were so easy as a parent.

[Myrtle]

[ QUOTE ]
The above is "freaking" hilarious, and I agree completely. Of course, I wish I were so easy as a parent.

[/ QUOTE ]

John,

I learned the hard way......

...as my two oldest would certainly attest.

The good news is that I'm still breathing so I have been able to attempt to explain the folly of my ways to both of them.

I've managed to avoid most of mistakes with the youngest two, so there is hope. [img]/images/graemlins/shocked.gif[/img]

p.s......I didn't miss the "freaking" in your salutation, either! [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[entertainme]

My kids grew up with all the kids from K to 12 riding the same bus together, so there was no doubt they heard plenty, (and I'm confident that every parent here has occasionally been caught in a language violation themselves by their kids. I know I have!)

We've had the same stance your family follows Ray, such as it's impolite to tell someone to "shut up". (It's not that you're not allowed to have these feelings, just that one must find a more appropriate way to express them.)

When it comes to "freaking" I probably would have let the first instance slide, but if it started to rear its head more often, I'd ask them to refrain just because of the language pattern it sets up.

When they reached the age where swearing became "cool" for its anti-establishment status, we had a discussion. I told them I understand the allure of "grown up" language and that they will most likely choose to experiment with swearing when with their friends.

However, long term I hope they will realize that choice of vocabulary reflects back on the speaker. Though we may use these expressions in some circumstances, in most situations they are detrimental to how others perceive us.

Because of our personal beliefs however, using God's name in vain is never acceptable in this family.

Tonight in WalMart someone thirty feet away let "sh*t" fly loud enough to be heard by anyone in the vicinity. The Boy immediately chafed at the innapropriate use in public where kids may be present to hear it.

Something must be sinking in.

As note on the side discussion:

[ QUOTE ]
Let me point it this way. If I say “Man, you suck.” I want you to realize that there is an object missing from the sentence.

[/ QUOTE ]

From the little googling I did, although the sexual intonation is frequently discussed, other sources say that no one is sure of the etymology. It's possible the original missing object was "eggs":

"Smarty! You think you're some, now, don't you? Oh what a hat!"

"You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it off-and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs."

Tom Sawyer

[John Cole]

Mrytle,

I don't think I screwed up completely, though. When my step-son needed a place to live after he broke up with his girlfriend a while ago, guess who he came to for a place to live. And, that was right after his sister moved out on her own. (I think the breaking up with the girlfriend and his sister moving out were not coincidences.)

[Blarg]

[ QUOTE ]
From the little googling I did, although the sexual intonation is frequently discussed, other sources say that no one is sure of the etymology. It's possible the original missing object was "eggs":

"Smarty! You think you're some, now, don't you? Oh what a hat!"

"You can lump that hat if you don't like it. I dare you to knock it off-and anybody that'll take a dare will suck eggs."

Tom Sawyer

[/ QUOTE ]

Interesting. I remember reading the phrase "egg-sucking dog" a few times when I was a kid. And apparently there really are dogs who love to suck eggs, or as close to sucking as a dog can get.

I doubt that's the etymology, though. "Suck" didn't gain any currency until the past couple of decades, it seems to me, long past the time when many Americans would have any exposure to eggs in the wild or dogs sucking them. There wouldn't have really been a common understanding for an abusive use of the word to come around, as it was the egg-sucking dog that was the negative thing, or maybe even the egg, but sucking was the last thing that could be thought of as negative in that phrase. I suppose sucking blueberries or something might have been given a big cultural thumbs up, who knows.

However, any association with sex is always grist for the mill of negativity, and oral sex used to be thought of as not so much "real sex" as sodomy, an inherently vile and immoral thing. What sucked were, well, wh*res and the like. It's not hard to see how saying something sucks, from that sort of association, means it's bad.