@#$*!

Like most 11 year old boys, Sonny Boy has a fascination with vulgarity. After much deliberation in recent weeks, I broke over and bought him American Idiot by Green Day. I had listened to most the songs on the CD, and really liked them. They are very talented, and it's so refreshing to hear a successful CD that's not about some guy trying to have sex with as many women as possible. The F bomb is only used a handful of times, and I felt I could talk to Sonny Boy about it and also let him know I'd better not hear it out of his mouth. It's so hard trying to make decisions when they reach the "tween years." I'm not going to abdicate all responsibilities, but we are definitely past my trying to shelter him.

We've been past sheltering actually. I can think back over the last several years and the ongoing fascination with "cuss words." He came home in 2nd grade one day and told me about a playground conversation. Apparently, all the boys (instead of running and playing) were standing around trying to figure out the cuss words. One little boy said he knew what the worst of all cuss words was. I asked Sonny Boy to tell me ( I've always told him that if he didn't understand a word or phrase to ask me or his daddy). Sonny Boy leaned over and said, "It's mother father." I was so proud of myself for not laughing hysterically as I explained that wasn't quite right.

Then there was the time last year when I took him to see Van Helsing. I debated with the PG-13 rating, but I figured it was monster violence - so we went. I overheard his conversation with my mom after the movie. "It was a pretty good movie...No, they didn't really say any bad words. Just the H word a couple times and then the D word a couple times. You know, the d-i-c-k word, not the other D word." Until that time, I'd had no idea there were 2 different D words.

And then back to yesterday, with the conversation around Green Day. He thought they didn't really know how to cuss right. I kept letting him talk as I would walk around the house, hoping to get away from him and that ridiculous topic of discussion. And he kept following me and continuing his diatribe on how one should cuss.

I thought back to a conversation just last week with some of my friends. Some of my friends admitted to dropping the F bomb on occasion because their husbands didn't like it. As I was walking in and out of the house, with Sonny Boy following - waxing eloquent on vulgarity, I wondered if I tried my friends' trick if that would get rid of Sonny Boy. Better not, I thought - he'd probably just call my mom and boy, would I be in trouble then!