Watch your mouth!

A few weeks ago, The Son and I were watching "Oprah" when the Black Eyed Peas were on and they sang "I Gotta Feeling" and the audience did the mob dance. It was cool, really cool. The Son enjoyed it a lot. If you haven't seen it, give it a "google" you'll find it easily. The Son had also heard the song "Boom Boom Pow" by the BEP and really liked that as well. They both seemed appropriate and innocent enough to me, so while at Target the other day, we saw their CD and I bought it for The Son and myself to listen to in the car. Many of the CDs at Target had parental advisory labels on them, "The END" by the BEP did not.

Imagine my surprise (or perhaps I should say naivete) when we started playing our new CD in the car and I clearly heard the "S" word multiple times, we scanned through that song. As I kept listening, it was clear that this CD was not going to be acceptable for The Son to listen to, at least not according to my standards. It looks like we spent over $11 for two songs (one of which also has the "S" word in it briefly) that we can actually listen to.

This brings me to something that I've been thinking about a lot lately as The Son grows up and is now interested in TV shows and movies beyond "Sprout" and "Noggin." Why is there so much bad language on TV and how do we, as parents, explain inappropriate usage of words to our children when they see them on TV or hear them in our music all the time? I know when I was growing up, my parents didn't curse, didn't use words like hell and damn and now they're commonplace on most TV shows. The other day, The Son was watching a "Lassie" movie with The Husband and they used the word "faggot," this movie was rated G! G? Really? Bakugan, which my son LOVES, constantly uses the phrase, "What the...?" leaving the watcher to fill in the blank. So not attractive when your kid comes out with, "What the heck?" or worse!

After talking about this all with The Husband last night, we came to the conclusion that a parent's job has changed over the years. Whereas when we were children, it was our parent's job to pretty much shield us from "bad" words now, The Husband and I feel that is close to impossible, it's now become our job to teach our children about "bad" words and to teach them why it's not acceptable to use them even though everyone else does. It's quite a challenge. The Son is constantly asking me, "Momma, can I say _____________" and I have to explain why or why not when I answer him. It's not only a challenge, it's exhausting!

I also hear so many children using the phrase, "Oh my God" (which I think I've written about before). I find it so inappropriate and unattractive and I am not the least bit religious. The Son hears this all. the. time. at school, on TV, even at our beloved YMCA... just about everywhere. Fortunately, he is still young enough that he listens to his Momma and Daddy and does work to self-edit his language and word choices.

So, am I over-reacting? Is it now acceptable for kids to say, "Oh my God!" "What the heck/hell?" or "Damn" or "Shit?" is it going to be a couple years before we also allow the "F" word on TV? We already allow "freaking" and "friggin" don't even get me started on that! I think that sounds terrible too! I don't know, I'm interested in hearing what others think about this topic and I'm really only talking about kids here, I am no prude, I use my fair share of "colorful language" when The Son is not around, it's not like I never do, it's just that I'm finding it a challenge to teach all this to The Son. What do you think? Leave me a freaking comment why don't you? ;)

Have a great Thursday everyone!