Tuesday, June 9, 2009

The Sacred and the Profane

Okay, nevermind the title. It's all profane. A mere week since I opined on some of the lesser delights of raising early readers, last night, as I walked out of the kitchen, this...

Double Daddy: "Sarah, that is an awful, awful word...and I never want to hear it come out of your mouth, do you understand? Some older kid probably wrote that on the bus seat thinking it's funny, but it's not. Do you hear me?"

[Immediately I knew we'd crossed over from believing the "s" word was "sucks" or the "f" word was "fat."]

Darren (realizing something "good" was going on]: "What word was it?"

Sarah: "It's a really bad word, Darren. I saw it on the bus seat on the way to the field trip. I'm not going to say it." [always with the field trips, isn't it?]

A few minutes later, curiosity eating me alive, I asked, "Sarah, do you want to write down what you read so I know what it was?" Excitedly--but with full knowledge it was not a good sentiment--in yellow colored pencil she wrote:

"F_ _ _ this ugly a_ _ school bus."

Delightful.

Like her daddy before me, I declared the inappropriateness of the commentary on the school's transport system. She told me to rip it up and I did.

Again, I reiterate; take your time with the reading.
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24 comments:

Terra said...

Hailey is learning to read now, it is so fun to watch her get so excited! I only hope she is not on a bus anytime soon!

Christy said...

That's some crazy sh-- ummm, stuff!
(hee!)

SouthernDogwoods said...

Seriously??!?! Oh my! Why do the older ridiculous kids have to ruin it for the younger ones!

mommytoalot said...

Wow...
Joey has learned some pretty colourful words at school as well.

Jenny P. said...

Christy's comment made me laugh out loud. :)

We've been lucky so far with Jordan... the only bad word he has ever repeated was damn, and it's cause he heard me say it. Oops!

Nicole O'Dell said...

The sad thing is, the kid who wrote that probably isn't (or might not be) much older than Sarah. It's ridiculous what these kids are exposed to.

I had to pick Natalie up from a sleepover one time becaus ethe family was teasing her because she said she wasn't allowed to watch Hostel with them HOSTEL! These were 4th graders at the time.

Keep them pure as long as you can...Sigh!

Nicole S. said...

Just wait until they start repeating what they read in public bathroom stalls! And many are accopmanied by little diagrams, too, so in case they didn't know the words before, they do now.

Tracy said...

Oh my goodness! How in the world am I going to make it through raising my twosome without laughing at things like that?

LivingSimply, SimplyLiving said...

Oh MY GOSH...
is all I have to say...
Oh MY Gosh..
Annmarie

Dana said...

Oh my! So funny, but yet not funny. :-( Ms. E said she knows exactly what seat it was before I even finished telling her Sarah's story. I totally agree with waiting to teach reading. Let them be kids!!

Jamie said...

Oh man. .. on an elementary bus. That's just sad! Unfortunately we have the same issues around here!

MereCat said...

Some girl told me the f word in 2nd grade. I told her I didn't believe her since my dad hasn't ever said that one. So I go home and start going, "luck, buck, duck truck, f---" and instantly found myself held up by the collar, my mom's angry face growling, "What did you say?" "I said, I dunno. What did I say?" She put me down, and said, "Don't say the one with the f." And in my mind I was going, "Damn. That WAS a bad word."

Nancy said...

Gah! Can I keep my kids in a bubble??

Lani said...

Ug! I hated school buses when I had to ride them, now I hate them even more!

Unknown said...

Geesh why do children have to vandalize?

Unknown said...

Yay! Congratulations on having such fabulous readers! They must have had such excellent teachers along the way! LOL- howling on the floor..... -e

noble pig said...

Oh joy. With a nine-year old it's even more fun. We have now gone through all the words he has heard on the playground, explained wat they mean and to never use them.

Lisa said...

wow - I remember I was in a movie once and there was a kid there who was reading the subtitles - the word 's _ _ t'...was on the screen and I heard the kid say...'mommy, what's that word mean?' I was impressed the kid was reading so well and didn't know 's _ _ t'!

Helene said...

Oh wow!!! That just boggles my mind that kids are even writing stuff like that on a school bus! I'm so naive like that, right?

Yeah, I guess I shouldn't be in such a hurry to get my kids to read.

debi9kids said...

Oh my gosh! That is just awful!
This is one more reason I love homeschooling my kids... it breaks my heart that nice kids get exposed to things like that :(

GibsonTwins said...

On a school bus?! Holy cow!
Nevermind the vandalism aspect, I wouldn't expect a highschooler to even write that!

Alli said to me a while back (after kicking poor Chloe away from her and seeing the cat jump the gate to escape the twins) "See dat? Coey pissed."

Only in my mind did I almost praise a 2 yr old for true sentence structure. Quickly mom-mode kicked in...

Sara said...

Ahh..the days when the "s" word is shut up and the "f" word is fat. How short they are. Sometimes I really wish I could just keep mine in the house and protect them forever.

Brooke said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Brooke said...

Oh lovely! Cringing over here. The bus is a scary place. My son came home not to long ago, telling me they were building a bottle rocket on the bus, one boy actually brought matches and they didn't works so he was going to bring a lighter the next day.

Needless to say I was on the phone with the school right away and the next day the lighter was found and taken away.

Ugh!!