the middle finger

I watch kids for extra money.  It is usually a win-win situation for my children and me.  I make some dough and they get a playmate.

Last week I had two extra boys; one older, one wiser.  They were on our front porch playing, and I was doing one of my favorite activities- eavesdropping.  I love to listen to my kids play, to hear their interactions.  I capture priceless little tidbits such as, “Let’s pretend we are babies and Hans Solo is our father and our mother is dead.”  Thanks to Disney most scenarios my kids come up with involve a dead mom.

This day the conversation I caught wasn’t so innocent- I guess Zach was counting on his fingers and stuck up his middle one.  The other boys thought this was hilarious (remember they are older and wiser) and I heard someone say the “f-word” (they really said “the f-word” instead of using the actual word).  

This seemed like a good time to make my presence known.  I walked onto the porch, and said I didn’t want anymore talk like that.  Immediately Zach’s face fell and he got tears in his eyes.  I took him inside away from the other boys.

I said he wasn’t in trouble, but I wanted to know if he knew what the middle finger meant.  He nodded his head yes and whispered, “Death.”

I was flooded with relief.  I know how he came up with this notion.  Six months before when I saw him pointing with that finger, I told him that it was a naughty finger and pointing it at people meant one of the worst swear words.  

I can see how he came up with “death” as the bad word.

As I relayed the story to my husband, I asked him about when we should tell him the real f-word (right now Zach thinks it means fart).  Do we let him learn it on the playground like we all did?  I certainly didn’t have my folks sit me down and explain the word.  Does it come out when we have “the talk”?  Any ideas out there?

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