Explosive Language

My favorite moment of back-to-school week had nothing to do with school. Telling it requires a huge mommy confession.

Roman is in second grade. Being my fourth child, and because his siblings are 22, 21, and 17–his rules are rather relaxed. Specifically (deep breath) he’s allowed to play video games with questionable content. Let’s face it, anything that requires real skill and reasoning has some bad language, violence, or likely both. The rules are simple, repeat ‘bad words’ or violent actions and the games will disappear. The only argument we’ve had was about keeping the games hidden when other 2nd graders stop by.

Roman was unwinding with Uncharted 3, a treasure hunter game, after his first day of 2nd grade. It’s his favorite and he has played it through at least a dozen times. I was filling out health forms and signing documents when I heard him say under his breath, “where the bad word are these guys going?”

I know mommy points are deducted every time I giggle in place of a reprimand, but this demonstrated brilliant rule skirting. He hadn’t actually said any forbidden words, so what’s a mommy to do? I tucked the milk-money check into his backpack and reviewed the holiday schedule. I remember second grade, and I understand how an occasional bad word could slip.

Now where the bad word has the time gone? I have editing to do.