Digraphs and Shit

As soon as I pulled into the carport and turned my car off, I heard the slam of our metal security screen door. Before I could open my car door completely, Captain Awesome was there helping to pull the car door open and hold it while I grabbed my purse, lunch and work bag to bring inside. He seemed almost giddy to see me, greeting me and Lieutenant Amazing with such excitement and cheer. While it was a wonderful way to be welcomed home, it was odd and out of character for my oldest son. 

Usually when we arrive home, Captain Awesome is sitting on the couch, with his nose in a book, reading so intently that our arrival goes virtually unnoticed. But this day was different. I figured, something must be up, since it was such an unusual way for him to greet me. At least he had the foresight to let me get in the house and set all of my things down before he told me. 

“I got a yellow face today.”

“You did? Why?”

“I said a bad word.”

“What did you say?”

“Well, see, we were doing digraphs in class today. We were saying words out loud with the sh sound. And I said, ‘shit’. But I didn’t know it was a bad word. The teacher told me it was a bad word and then I had to turn my card to yellow.”

It took all I had in me, to not burst out laughing. I pictured a class full of first graders saying words that had the sh sound and then my son, loud and clear came up with the word shit. But here I couldn’t be a giggly school girl, I had to be a mom. My son was really upset about this mistake and as Captain Awesome finished telling me about his day, I could tell by the way his head hung that he was sorry he had gotten a yellow face card. I know that he didn’t mean to upset his teacher. Most likely he did not know it was a bad word, since we’ve never had a conversation about it before. I wasn’t sure what to do, if anything, so I did what I always do when I need time to think about something. 

“I need to talk to Daddy when he gets home.”

When my husband got home, I had Captain Awesome tell his daddy what he did. While both of us tried our best not to laugh, after all this was a serious matter, our child was using profanity in the classroom. We agreed that Captain Awesome probably did not know it was a bad word, and since he did get the sh sound right, we didn’t want to do anything more about it. We talked to him and let him know that it was not an appropriate word for him to say. We figured having to turn his card from green to yellow was enough discipline for his action.

I’m not sure what the teacher thinks of us now that our bright kid, used that word in digraph practice, but oh well. What can we do? We're only human. Maybe she got a little private chuckle out of it like we did.