My son, Dane, came home from kindergarten and told me his classmate Nadia got in trouble at school. She’d said the "S-H-" word.

Nadia's from Romania and she’s a little older than her classmates. She’s also a bit rough-and-tumble, but harmless enough. I asked him what kind of trouble she got in and he said she had to run a lap.

Aubrey, my younger child, yelled from the other room, "What's the S-H- word?"

I sighed and leaned forward on my chair, trying to come up with some quick teaching points as Aubrey made her way to the room.

I knew full well they’d heard me say it before, but when Aubrey showed up, I started out carefully: "Well… it's a word people say that shows their frustration -- only it's just adults who use it, and they try not to use it very often. And,” I said, looking at each of them deliberately, “kids aren’t supposed to use it at all."

Pause. Calm response. "It's SHIT."

"Shit?" Dane asked. "She said SHUT UP. . ."

By Anjie Reynolds

Labels: Anjie Reynolds, dirty words, Romania, shit, The SH Word

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