6 year old swears

In the restaurant we heard, "Granny, I know some naughty words." Granny asked what he knew and he whispered, "stupid." To which, I thought, "whew, he still thinks stupid is the worst word that can be stated by a human. Life is good. I must be doing something right."

Then he whispered, "I know pain in the ass too." Oh dear, I wasn't quite expecting that one. Alex hasn't used naughty words since he was a toddler and used damn correctly. For some reason when a toddler says a swear word, it makes it chuckle, especially when the child is frustrated and uses the word correctly. When Gabriel was only 13 months old, he said, "Damn dog." In fact, it was his first two word utterance. Ah, the proud Mommy moment when he said it in front of my parents at Christmas time. It was right after our husky did something mischevious. That dog didn't calm down until this past year when he turned ten years old and many times I said, "that damn dog." Because, well, he was a damn dog in that moment and I couldn't help but state the fact. So I discussed that "pain in the ass" and "stupid" are terms reserved for adults and when Alex turns 18, he can chose to use those words when he feels they are appropriate.

Last night, I asked Alex to put on his pajamas. I reminded him that his siblings were waiting downstairs for him with Daddy and everyone wanted to play the Wii. Alex looked at me with his big beautiful blue eyes and a cute grin and said, "stop bitching at me." Yes, my 6 year old son said, "stop bitching at me." It was an awkward moment. We both stared at each other, each one trying to decide how to assess this new situation. Seriously, why couldn't he just get his pajamas on and not say something so horrible?!!

I believe we are in a testing stage with him and he is trying to figure out which words are appropriate to use. (if this isn't the case, please let me remain in my delusional world for a while) I was calm and asked him if he really thought that was something he should say to his mother. He was smart enought to reply, "no it wasn't." Whew - maybe I'm still doing something right here. I told him that he gets one chance with me but the next time, he will have consequences if he chooses to tell me to stop bitching at him. (besides, I wasn't bitching at him!)