Stories Collected While Living in France

French la Vie

The Story of the Very Bad Word

  Summer time moments

 

After Sacha's and Sam's graduation last night, there was a slumber party at my brother Mark's and his wife Diane's home. Well, not really a slumber party more of a crash and sleep. You see I went over to their house to write my blog. But that is hard to do with four adorable children talking, goofing off and catching me up with their tales since my last visit home.

Anyway, around one in the morning, I told them I needed to write my blog, so they should go to sleep, and I would be here in the morning. My little nieces and nephews hadn't since past midnight in moon's ages.

The next morning around a pink box of donuts… delicious donuts… and tall glasses of milk they got talking up a storm again. Each weaving their two cents a mile a minute into my heart. I love how their stories unfold and go in several directions at once, and yet straight to the heart of matter.

Gina (12) said, "You know Aunt Coco, Sacha said a bad word the other day in front of Molly (8). He said, "Full of . . . ." then she shook her head, while her younger brother George leaned across the table towards me, and spelled it in my ear, "C. R. A. P.."

Gina's younger sister Maci (10) jumped in and said, "George (7) it wasn't, and she whispered the letters to C.R.A.P., then added it was," she hesitated, looked at her youngest sister Kate (5) and whispered the letters, "S.H.I.T"

Kate looked at all of us, perplexed, while trying to figure out the codes of what was going on. Gina reached out, touching her arm sweetly, and added, "Kate we are talking about bad words, and the only bad word you know is shut up."

Kate's eyes widen as if she was let it on a big secret.

Then the three older ones continued to tell me the tale of poop, that had hurt Molly and shocked them. Then Kate said, "Aunt Coco are you going to put Sacha is time out?"

There I was surrounded by donut eating munchkins, at the crack of dawn…

"Welcome back to motherhood," I thought to myself and wondered what other tattle-tales was I go to hear.

(Photos: Several summers ago where few of them knew how to spell.)

 

Comments

28 responses to “The Story of the Very Bad Word”

  1. Patty G

    Too adorable!

    Reply
  2. Celeste

    So happy you’re home Corey!
    Celeste,
    just down the road.

    Reply
  3. Merisi in Vienna

    Out of the mouth of babes …. 😉
    Can’t wait to see how those adorable little girls look now!
    I remember our oldest listening in to our conversation and then suddenly asking: “How come you always say “Christmas tree” when you are talking about grandma?” She was maybe three then. Wonder if that early childhood experience has anything to do with the fact she went on to study psychology and communication? 😉

    Reply
  4. Sam

    LOL… and these are the days of our lives, kid drama is so much F-U-N. They look adorable in their braids.

    Reply
  5. lindamarcov@yahoo.com

    the moment my grandchildren join us in the car alone after their parents have dropped them off, they begin the stories, and some of them are whoppers.! Out of the mouth of babes, nothing more honest.

    Reply
  6. Penny

    Nothing like a gaggle of kids, pumped and primed to rat on one of their own. tee hee
    I used to love to drive my daughters and their friends everywhere when they we young. Oh, the things I would find out. What fun they are having with their Aunt Coco – and what fun she must be having with them.

    Reply
  7. Marilyn

    This does indeed make me smile. Definitely out of the mouths of babes. Laughing, in fact.

    Reply
  8. Paulita

    Oh, those innocent bad words. How I long for the day when they were shocked by bad words. Just found out my 17-year-old didn’t spend the night at the friend’s house he said he was going to. Now I have to deal with the deceit. Wish he had just said, or even spelled, c.r.a.p.

    Reply
  9. Kristin

    In second grade where I teach the tattles fly all day like that… I can’t stand tattlers! Lol

    Reply
  10. Cheryl~ Casual Cottage Chic

    Oh, do take a similar picture of those darling little ones sitting in the same order…would love to see how they have changed! Don’t you just love their innocence?
    I love the young ones on our cul-de-sac…they tell all and seem to know all that is going on 😉

    Reply
  11. Brenda, Walker, LA, USA

    Lol, I so wish I could re live moments like these, when that fresh and adorable innocence was so wonderful! My boys were so cute when they had to show and tell me everything!

    Reply
  12. martina

    Adorable! What was Sacha’s reaction when you told him his cousins wondered if he would go in time out?

    Reply
  13. Marie-Noëlle

    I bet you’ll catch up quickly with everything !!!

    Reply
  14. denise

    that is the second funniest thing i read today. how refreshing. little kids have all the wisdom of the world. Bestest,Denise

    Reply
  15. ellen cassilly

    Lovely story. We want some current photos. I’m sure that they are just as cute. E

    Reply
  16. Linda H

    Adorable story! Makes me remember the first time my son told me so and so had used the bad “s” word. Bracing myself, I heard it from his sweet mouth, “shut up.” Enjoy your time and stories with the donut munchers!

    Reply
  17. Kathie B

    At the age of Corey’s younger nieces and nephews, a sense of justice and fairness has already begun to develop, which is on the whole desirable. I think the real issue is teaching children when it’s appropriate to tattle (so as to deter, e.g., abusers, who rely on bullying their victims into not telling), and when it’s not.

    Reply
  18. Birdbrain

    New favorite expletive with added embellishment via Amy Poehler of Parks and Rec – “Crap on a Spatula”, love it! Beats crap all to “h e double hockey sticks”!

    Reply
  19. Birdbrain

    Madeleine was about 3 1/2 or 4 and I had cut my swearing way back years prior, but upon returning to SFO, the driver of the shuttle to our hotel dropped our bags as he was loading them as Madeleine watched from her car seat in the back – out of her tiny mouth comes – “Shoot, damn it!” I nearly died laughing, recognizing the last of my cussing.

    Reply
  20. Franca Bollo

    And now the child swears like a sailor.

    Reply
  21. janet

    Have them fill out a tattling license application that clearly spells out which infractions need to be reported and which should NOT! 😉 It actually works!

    Reply
  22. janet

    Oh my gosh– this is F.U.N.N.Y.!!!!
    Treasure each moment.

    Reply
  23. Sam

    Call me the strange one, but I like the pictures of the little ones as they are, lol, they grow so quickly. Sometimes it’s nice to revel in innocence.

    Reply
  24. Elaine L.

    Awwwww, such an adorable story.
    Did you put Sacha in timeout? heehee
    ~elaine~

    Reply
  25. Amy Kortuem

    AWESOME! I was running down the sidewalk a few weeks ago and some darling child had written “poop here” outside one house and “wipe butt here” a few doors down, with a hopscotch path leading between the two.
    Can you imagine how much fun that was to write? (I didn’t see anybody obey the commands, though…)

    Reply
  26. Sharon Penney-Morrison

    hahahahahah kids love to tattle.
    Have fun………..

    Reply
  27. Kate

    My son, who is now 22 and considered “developmentally delayed,” has not grown out of his awareness of “bad words” as being unacceptable and thus, in his mind, a little bit funny, as if he’s getting away with something if he uses one.
    The other day I posted a short video clip of him singing me this “song” he learned … he is quite proud of himself.

    Reply
  28. Picnics in Provence

    I would be very proud too – love it!
    Nikki

    Reply

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