Um, they didn't get that from ME...

I must confess something: sometimes I curse. A lot. Mostly while driving. And sometimes the children have been witness to this cursing. When Bear and Miss were younger, I used to blame my husband for any curse words they happened to repeat, which fortunately was never that often anyway. He curses a lot too, so that didn't seem that far-fetched - even to him. But now that they're older, the children are fully capable of implicating me as the person who called the moron who cut us off in traffic a "jack-ass" or "asshole," (I do manage to refrain from the preferred albeit slightly more colorful terms "fuck stick" and "douche bag"). So the days of shirking responsibility are pretty much over.

Which leads me to the point of this story. My husband and I get on each other's nerves as much as any other married couple I know, but rarely do these annoyances ever escalate into full-blown arguments. This however was not the case a few nights ago, and our disagreement led to me storming out of the kitchen and into our bedroom where I proceeded to slam the door - but only after calling Carl a "big baby" (very adult of me, I know - but he really was being one just so you know). Miss happened to be in my bedroom just then, and when she inquired as to what was going on and why I was mad, I did tell her that mommy and daddy were cranky and that sometimes married people argue, but that there's nothing to worry about - to which she responded knowingly and with a fair amount of sympathy, "Dad's a jack-ass?" And as much as I wanted to say "YES!" and laugh my ass off and commiserate about what a big baby he was being, I did tell her that "jack-ass" is not an appropriate word for a young lady, particularly in regard to her father. Miss seemed to understand this already and I could tell that she had thought this was finally her moment to successfully incorporate the word "jack ass" into her vocabulary without any objections on my part.

Ten minutes later, Carl and I had laughed it off, happily proceeding with our usual evening of chips, ice cream, and bad television. And cursing aside, I'd like to think that maybe Miss learned something from this, because arguments happen - particularly in relationships. Sometimes people get mad at each other, and sometimes people yell. That's not necessarily unhealthy. But the important thing is that you try to find a way to compromise and don't sweat the small stuff.