Sunday, December 16, 2007

The Mouths of Babes

One evening last week, I was working in the kitchen, and Wife and the boys were in the living room watching a video. I heard Wife ask our two-year-old, “What did you say?”

A minute later, Wife brought the boy to me as she stifled her own laughter. “I can’t do it without laughing,” she said. “You have to talk to him.” So I took him into his bedroom and asked him, “Boy, what did you say?”

“Holy Shit,” he said again with his arms extended, palms up, and shrugging his shoulders in an I-don’t-know kind of way. He said it without the least hint of guilt or mischief. I knew right then it was time to have a talk with our fourteen year old.