hay-el and ooh doggy

Do you remember the first time you heard a cuss word? the first time you used one? I do. Remember the day I heard the f-word for the first time, that is. It was in seventh grade on the bus ride home and I didn't know what it meant. The fierceness of the sound itself construed the meaning and I was in shock. I had heard "badwords" such as shit and god when my brothers said them and I had snickered (discreetly, of course, so as not to suffer the same punishment) as my mom washed their mouths out with soap. (One time she actually used liquid soap when she realized she had no bar soap, haha.) I mention all this because I don't remember bad words before 8 years of age or so... and I think my daughter knows them all. We don't try our hardest not to swear in front of her, but after bedtime our tongues relax and it comes out. Don't get me wrong I use the f-bomb on this site far more frequently than I do in real life but things like shit!, dammit!, and whatthehell! pop out on occasion.

Last night my kid's telling me a bedtime story (we take turns, I read a book and she in turn, creates a new one out of the pictures.) and it is fantastic in the very meaning of the word way (beware Kit, her imaginary friends, Rico and Anika, live in Cape Town in a blue house). This goes on for 12 and a half minutes. I wish I had a voice recorder. And she's summing up her story and delivers the punchline that goes something like this: "So, Anika's walking and goes, 'What the hay-ell? What did I just do?'" I interrupt her saying, "Um, babe? We don't talk like that, it's not very nice." "I know, Mommy," she says, "I didn't say it, Anika said it. I telled her, 'oh my goodness!' when she told me the first time!"

Oops, apparently sleeping babes are actually studying and memorizing the manner and accent in which their mommies cuss.

what the hay-el?