When You Are Six

When you are six, it doesn't take much to have a bad week.

It starts when six year old boy and the neighbor girl, same age, decide to relieve themselves in the yard rather than take time to go inside to the bathroom.  Girl's daddy doesn't seem to possess a sense of humor.  Boy's daddy knows that the kids are only six years old and when you are six, peeing outside is fun.  Boy's daddy kinda wishes the kid would have found a bush to hide behind, though.  Six year old boy learns that there is less trouble involved if he just goes inside when nature calls.

Then six year old boy comes home spouting a brand new word.  It is unfortunate that this particular word is not one that should be used in polite society.  Boy's daddy wants to know where he heard this particular word.  Six year old boy says that the neighbor boy said it to another kid.  Boy's daddy wants to know if six year old boy knows what this word means.  Six year old boy does not.  Boy's daddy explains that this word is not a nice word.  It is a word that nice people don't use.  He tells six year old boy that if he doesn't know what a word means, he shouldn't say it.  And if he does know what a word means and it is a word that is naughty, he shouldn't say it then, either.  Six year old boy learns a lesson about bad words.

I really like the fact that my son didn't come all unglued when his son added a bad word to his vocabulary.  He patiently explained, without having to go into detail about the meaning of the word which the kid is probably too young to totally grasp, that there are words that are not nice and he would not like to hear those words spoken in their home, or away from it, for that matter.

In these days of extreme political correctness and free speech zones, I am glad that my grandson is being taught right from wrong and not being taught that certain words are not allowed.  The kid, while growing up, is going to be learning lots and lots of new words - not all of them nice.  I believe that learning what is right and what is wrong will serve him much better than an outright banning of words.  And I am certain that if this same kid decides to spout off words he knows are wrong, there will be consequences.  Which makes a lot more sense to me than censoring speech or creating free speech zones.

As for the peeing on the lawn thing, I'm pretty sure that when my grandson has grandchildren of his own, he will probably still be peeing outdoors now and then.  But by then he will have gained enough common sense to at least go find a tree to hide behind.