Sunny’s Mom Struggles: When Your Kid Curses At School Edition

Yep, you read that right. My mom struggle this week has been pretty tricky. Let me tell you why...

As you should know by now, I have a six-year-old and a three-year-old. Both children are boys and both are wild. Remember the time when my kids got a hold of a Sharpie and decided to make their rooms more festive? Instead, you might remember the time when my then 5-year-old hung hangers on the ceiling fan for fun. My personal favorite struggle is the time that I had to deal with vomit, pee, and broken eggs all on the same day. The point is, these kids are definitely something else.

So it's no surprise to me that this week my 6-year-old cursed at school. To be honest, I'm shocked that it's taken this long. Now here we are...me, my kid, and the full-length page note that the teacher sent home from school. Knowing it must have been a pretty rough day, I pulled the lengthy letter out of the folder to start reading.

Out of all of the things he'd done that day one thing stood out in particular. The one thing was that my kid cussed at school. Not only did he cuss, but he cussed at the teacher. Fantastic. Now I know that you all are very curious to know what he called her, so I will tell you.

My son called his teacher 'Pi$$ Pants'.

Even though I was less than thrilled by the fact that my child cussed at school, I was a little amused at his word choice. Why that phrase? I've never even said that. I don't know anyone that's ever said that, except for him. So where the phrase came from, I have no idea.

Now comes the time for punishment for his actions, which in turn, ended up being one of the hardest things I've ever had to do - not because I thought it was that horrifying of a thing, but because I had to repeat this phrase to him and explain that it's wrong to say without laughing while I said it. It's ridiculous. I know in your mind you're thinking, "Oh come on, Sunny! You can say this without laughing!", but you don't know my kid. He is naturally hilarious, even when he's getting in trouble. So I took a deep breath, got to the phrase in question, said it, and then something hilariously awful happened.

My son started laughing hysterically. Complete, uncontrollable belly laughter. Meanwhile, I'm biting my lips attempting not to laugh at his infectious laugh as it only continues to escalate. Finally, I couldn't stand it any longer and burst out laughing. Both of us laughed until we had to catch our breath.

Did I let him get away with it? Of course not! While cursing isn't the greatest thing, I've educated my child about it. He knows that some words are 'adult' words and that he should not say them and 99% of the time, he doesn't. However, I do not under any circumstances allow name calling. Cursing to be cursing is one issue itself, but cursing at or just being hateful to another person, in general, is unacceptable. Hurting someone else's feelings just because you're having a tough day is never alright. So, after our little outburst, I calmed down and had a long discussion with him about why he can't say these words and why he cannot be hateful to anyone, including his teacher, even when he's upset. Let's just say that he was less than happy with his consequence of having to stay in his room until dinner that day.

The moral of the story is, sometimes kids make mistakes just like adults do. So, while it wasn't the best situation, my son understands now that it's not okay to say those things, that they aren't funny and they're hurtful. Kids really do say the darndest things!