B is for...

is for... Bad Habits



I have many bad habits. I bite my nails, I swear a lot, I yell a lot, I have trouble adapting to change, I sometimes eat right before bed, I eat lots of junk food, I don’t exercise as much as I should, I spoil my kids and I don’t call my family as much as I should.
As you can see I have quite a few bad habits but the one that bothers me the most is my potty mouth. It bothers me because I have young children that listen to mommy and hear these words and try to repeat them. Like my two year old keeps saying “Damn!” because she hears mommy say it or my five year old that keeps saying “Helluva”
I remember watching this episode of Sponge Bob Square pants with my kids and sponge bob saw some curse words on the back of this garbage can.  He wanted to know what they meant so he asked his best friend (Patrick the unintelligent starfish) what the word meant. He was informed by his friend that those words were considered to be “sentence enhancers”. I thought that was the funniest thing ever. My 13 year old keeps telling me she thinks that is why I use those words so much. She thinks I am “enhancing my sentences” as she laughs at me.
On top of that I bought Lady and the Tramp for my younger kids to watch. I wanted them to see all the classics and not some of these crazy cartoons out here. My kids were freaked out when Lady was referred to on a number of occasions in the movie as “a Bitch” my 5 year old and 13 year old were appalled. They came to me so upset.
“Why do they keep cursing in a kid’s movie?”
My response: laughing my ass off!
I had to tell them that technically the word is not really a bad word. Female dogs are called bitches but what makes the word bad is when you use it to describe a woman or another person. Then you are saying a bad word. In the same breath you can’t call boys or men dogs either. It’s the same thing. Also there are other words that are not curse words, I feel, until you use them to insult someone else like “Hell”, “Ass” or “Damn”. I tell my kids about these words but, they are still not allowed to use them because society sees them as bad words despite what their origins are.  I do not need a call from school saying my kids are using foul language.
My five year old tells me that I shouldn't use them around the house then and she is right. She has resulted in calling me out when I use foul language. “Mommy, you said a bad word.” That is how I am trying to curb my bad habit of using “sentence enhancers”
I grew up in a house with a mother that was kind, loving supportive but cursed like a sailor. I grew up listening to that and it attached itself to my vocabulary.  I know they say that using so many curse words can make you sound unintelligent, but it is very difficult for me to stop using them. I’m working on it because I don’t want my kids to pick up on my bad habits.
So I am trying hard not to say those words around my kids. They don’t think I can do it, but I am going to prove to them that I can stop. At least when I am around them…
So what bad habits do you want to stop?


Comments

  1. Donnee,
    Great post! Maybe you should put a jar on the counter (or somewhere). Every time you say a bad word you have to put a quarter in it. If the kids say a bad word, you can take a quarter out. You will remember easier this way. (We did this years ago with my kids - it worked.)

    My bad habits... I eat too much junk food and don't exercise enough. I'd like to eat better and exercise more. They say public confession is good for the soul. Don't know if I feel better or not. :)

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  2. This is a dandy post, Donnee. You show us your vulnerability by sharing a real problem. Thank you for that.

    Yes, we have all been there. And we do change a lot of habits because of our kids, don't we? I raised my two daughters in the late 60s, 70s, and 80s. I did not "curse like a sailor", but I did not hesitate to let the "usual" words out. When my girls began to use them, too, I did not reprimand them, but would caution: "these are only-in-our-house words because some people think they are bad words and will think badly of you if they hear you. And, of course they are not to be used at school." So, I guess you could say I mostly ignored the words. And, I rarely heard them spoken. I giggle today, because now in their 40s, these sweet daughters of mine do not hold back if a swear word is the best word for a situation.

    A bad habit I want to stop? Being a pack rat. I have too much stuff and things become pretty cluttered. It does bother me, but it takes a LONG time before I'm fed up with it.

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  3. Your list of "failings" is not very long, nor too serious. Sadly, I can relate to the potty mouth issue.Our children are the mimics of our bad habits, especially when we least desire it.When I was in my twenties, the teen-aged brother of a roommate came to visit. He later sent a nice thank you letter reflecting especially how I had done such a great job as his "tour guide." Included in the letter was a photo of me, with caption bubbles filled with my choicest expletives. That not-so-subtle went a long way toward curbing my then-frequent use of the f-bomb , etc.

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  4. I tend to use expletive a lot on my writing and every time I type one out, I find myself questioning whether it should be there or not. Ultimately, I keep it. I like the emotion they can convey, even if it's a little graphic. but I, too, know now, that when I do have kids, I will need to be careful about letting them read my writings.

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  5. I have a terrible habit of procrastinating in almost every situation. I'm working on it (sort of), but I definitely plan on getting it nipped in the bud, eventually.

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  6. Bad habits...poor eating choices, lack of exercise. Language is not my issue...it was absolutely not permitted when I was a child and oddly enough neither parent bought my very reasonable explanation as to why mention of a beaver's dam was appropriate in conversations with my brother. Lol! Another engaging and true post. ..thanks for sharing!

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