on noords and such

This is the age where you really have to be careful about things. For example, I was raised by a mother doing the "hippie" thing who routinely swore up a storm. I grew UP swearing. Part of my childhood, as it were. Well, it's not part of my kid's childhood, nor was it part of my husband's. Which is fine. Much better, actually. And I don't swear in front of my child. As a matter of fact, at 4.5, the only "bad" word he really knows and tries to use is "stupid," which, since he's not allowed to say it, he abbreviates to "stoop." However, and this one caught me by surprise, I SPELL. My husband and I spell to ourselves, and I spell-curse if I'm upset. Ahem. The other day, my lovely child said to me "mother, would you please get off of the A... P ... P... V.... E.... telephone?" Hoooo boy. From that day on, I realized that I can NOT swear-spell using real words. So... I guess if I'm really upset I'll have to spell "darn" or something. Simon has a friend named Noor, by the way. Several days ago I used the term "nerd" in the car. About three minutes later, a little question drifted forward from the carseat: "Mommy, what's a nooord?" I began to give a typical description, but was stopped by my husband with a "of course we won't give any negative association to people who are good at math and science, right?" Sigh. This PC business is tough. I figure that we'll give it a few more years and then let him onto the fact that his parents both have a really sick and probably antisocial sense of humor. ha!