The Good Bad Words


Rhiannon is Obsessed with cursing. Not that she does it. Far from it. But she knows that words have power. She knows the "F" word, "B" word, "D" word, "S" word. She doesn't use them. She even knows how to differentiate between "Jesus" the religious figure and "Jesus" the curse. She uses them correctly. At one point two years ago, I said something to Rhiannon that had her go to her room muttering "Jesus" under her breath. It was not a prayer.

Rhiannon has a friend, Emma. Emma is allowed to curse at her house. In theory she is forbidden to curse elsewhere, but would make a sailor blush with her four-letter-word-rhetoric. Guess who's having a birthday party at her house on Saturday? Give up? Emma. And Rhiannon told me yesterday that she is very much looking forward to going to Emma's house to party because she can then, in theory, cut loose with every expletive she knows. I am halfway interested in going to the party to hear if this actually happens. Of course Rhiannon has been told "no" about using these words at Emma's, but you never know.

Last night, Rhiannon did a recap of what she considers to be "good bad words": dang, darn, darn it, dang it, dagnabbit, goshdarnit, gosh, golly, oh no, drat, oh my goodness, etc.

I decided to wind her up. "What about 'f...udge' or 'f...arkle'!"

"NO!"

"Or 'frak' or 'funkadelic'"!

"NO! DAAAD!"

"Okay, okay."

"I can say "d-a-m" but not "d-a-m-n".

"Right."

"But I can't say the 'F' word. F-A-C."

"Close."

"F-O-C?"

"Almost!"

"DAD! TELL ME!"

"Nope. Just know that the 'F' word is bad."

"What else is bad?"

"BUSH!"

Rhiannon loves this. So the next time she trips or drops something, she's going to say, "Oh, Bush!". And that's a good bad word to me.

Rhiannon. Cursed with Cuteness.

Andrew (Papa)