Friday, March 23, 2012

Modesties

I grew up in a home that used ... alternate words for sensitive topics.

(Tangent)
My apologies if this post gets a little ... real. Just know that the colliding of my childhood family culture versus the culture I am interested in for my own family has been educational.
(End Tangent)

For example, when I was a kid, going "Number 2" was worded as "having a bowel movement."

(Tangent)
I know, I know. That is remarkably descriptive for a code phrase, isn't it? Hopefully you're not trying to eat while you read this.
(End Tangent)

Likewise, the parts of the male anatomy were generally referred to as "plumbing."

As we have prepared to broach these subjects with our daughter, we wanted to just use the real words for things and avoid all the substitutions. Consequently, when my daughter started asking my wife about her "pillows," my wife used the real term. We thought things were progressing well until one day, my daughter said something about her "modesties."

Needless to say, we were REALLY confused and couldn't figure out what she was talking about.

Finally, she used it in a recognizable sentence, something about not lifting her shirt up because it would show her "modesties."

Once we were out of view, we nearly died laughing ... and it has now been several weeks and we have yet to correct her choice of words.

1 comment:

Jessie said...

Hahaha! Oh that girl. Reagan uses the real word a little TOO freely, it's embarrassing. Ie: making up songs about them in the store at the top of her lungs, telling me she wants them etc.

She needs to hang out with your girl more.

BTW, super embarrassed about yesterday! My horn got stuck, I was not in fact being a crazy on the loose. lol.