Saturday, January 26, 2008

Deterrent

For those of you reading this that don't know our family well, profanity is not something that is tossed around lightly at our house. I will not go so far as to say that a curse word is never uttered, but they are very few and far between. The "F Bomb", as it is referred in our home, is considered especially vile. All of our children are well of this. However, as most of us know, children (especially those of the teen and pre-teen variety) like to test the limits and try things out from time to time. This morning started with an especially egregious attempt by one of our kids, so the following assignment was given in hopes of eliminating such ideas from said child's head in the future, and possibly even educating them a little...

Step 1: Look up the offending words in the dictionary, and copy down their definitions. If said definitions are filled with complicated words, look them up too, until you have a satisfactory understanding of the true meaning of what you said.

Step 2: Write about why saying such things is inappropriate, and in fact completely inapplicable.

So, here is the finished product. I have done my best to sensor the offensive words (to protect my readers), and have eliminated all names (to protect my children's privacy). I am only posting this in hopes that some other parent that comes upon this issue with a child in the future might find help in how to handle it. Plus, it is just a tad funny. 8^)


F@#%ing Moron

Definitions:

F@#% - 1 to copulate, 2 meaningless intensive

Intensive - tending to strengthen or increase; emphasis

Moron - feeble-minded person or mental defective who has a potential mental age between 8 and 12; a very stupid person

Why is it inappropriate and inapplicable?

A f@#%ing moron is essentially an extremely stupid person. ***** quite obviously does not fit this description. It is taken offensively by most, and rightfully so. When used in this manner, it has absolutely nothing to do with anything sexual, though that is it's more common definition. Calling someone a "f@#%ing moron" is insensitive, inappropriate and vile. In other words, it is 100% wrong no matter whom one is addressing.

It doesn't apply because ***** is a very intelligent person, and this has been proven in many ways. He has had special testing done, he gets good grades, and he knows quite a lot. So in the end, calling someone a "f@#%ing moron" is inappropriate, and it certainly doesn't apply to a person such as *****.


AAAAHHHhhhhh!!! The joys of parenting!

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh I like that creative punishment for use of profanity. I may have to file that away and use it when my kids are older!

Anonymous said...

This is just the sort of thing that your father would have done. ;-) I love it!! I still remember the remote control incident from when we were kids. I can't remember if we actually made it to the movie that we wanted to see or not.

Cousin Julie

Rhonda said...

Good job Blaine. I think that discipline that helps a child understand why their actions (or words) were wrong is the best. I have a friend who's daughter did the same thing. She made her not only do what you did, but also find scripture that told her what God said about her actions and then write a letter of apology to both God and the person she defamed.

Tiffany said...

I love creative parenting! By the way, I have some "pretty" couch drawings too! ;)
www.namastechild.blogspot.com

angie said...

Ha ha! this is great!

Jody said...

LOLOL!

Very creative.

Let me add that everytime I load your page and see the header pic, I get all goose bumpy. Such a wonderful picture.