Daddy, She Called Me the C Word

We are pretty careful with what our girls watch on TV, and don't let fly with profanity in the house. I usually save it for work, where it belongs.

 

The other day Emma, our 6-year-old, who has a definite sense of right and wrong, a flair for drama, and who also realizes the value of getting her sister in trouble, walked into the kitchen and said her sister called her the "C word." The two of them are old enough that the most minor thing is good reason to fight, but this was going to an unprecedented extreme of name calling.

I know that there are enough foul-mouthed kids on the bus and at school that her sister Charlotte, who is 9, might have heard that word before. Charlotte has heard the F-word; she nervously asked me whether it was a bad word or not. I told her it was, and not to ever use it, and I don't think she has. But the C word? What kids in the fourth grade use that? 

We asked Emma, who is in kindergarten and starting to learn phonics, what exactly Charlotte had said. She said it was a bad word that we have told her not to say.

"She called me the C-word Mommy. And I don't want to repeat it!"

"Emma, it's OK if you tell me in my ear. We don't want Charlotte using that word either."

"But I don't want to say it."

"It's ok. You can tell me just once."

After a couple of more pleas, Mrs. Murid convinced Emma to tell her. She looked at me and could barely keep a straight face once she heard it. Emma left the kitchen. Her mother almost burst out laughing. It wasn't that C word -- Thank God -- but if you are in kindergarten and you don't know the difference between C and S then those letters are all sort of the same. Her sister called her stupid.