Monday, February 9, 2009

The Dirty Little "M" Word

What? Moron? Menace? Micky Mouse?

No.

Mine!

I loath this word. I shudder every time anyone under three feet uses this word in any context. I have made serious effort to never use this word. We have always said, "This is Mama's." "Dada's shoes." If one of the girls is playing with a toy and her sister tries to take it, we have always said, "Sissy is playing with that toy right now. It is Sissy's toy." Things have been going so well that both girls will walk around and point out ownership to items around our house.

"Mama's cup." (Points to my drinking glass.)

"Mama's." (Points to my, uh, laptop...hee hee...anyway)

"Dada's cup." (Points to twindada's beer bottle. He LOVES this one! Ha ha!)

Anyway, the point is that I have gone through great pains to never say "mine" to the girls so they will not use this word.

Why would I do that?

For the very reason why this week, Jelly Bean ripped a toy out of her sister's hands yelling, "Mine!" Or the time when Peanut got hold of some fresh laundry and when I went to retrieve it, she yelled at me shouting, "Mine!" (For the record, the item was one of my socks. It did not belong to her at all.)

Where did they learn this?

I am blaming Noggin's Lazytown and Max & Ruby. Both shows this week showed children saying the word. Shouldn't the censors be on that? Don't they know that in the pre-school world, "mine" is as dirty a word as other more adult four letter words?

My critics will say, "well, who let them watch TV in the first place?"

And I say, "Well, me, but that isn't the point..."

Ultimately it all comes back on the mother, so whatever, I guess the fault is all...mine.

8 comments:

Toni said...

That word kind of makes me shudder too. That and the word hate.

Probably because he is an only child thus far, Hunter doesn't really use the mine word yet however I fear that will change after baby number 2 arrives...

Good luck!

Hajar Zamzam Ismail said...

Are those shows on PBS? I only let the boys watch PBS. It remains to be seen if they learn any bad manners from watching that. I hope not though.

Jack & Aidan said...

Uh-oh, we've already started watching Noggin! So far it's just been Wonder Pets and Jack's Big Music Show...the keywords seem to be "teamwork" and "Sing Along!". Max & Ruby is an awfully cute show, though. (I may have the early signs of a Noggin addiction)

BTW, cute blog!!

Helene said...

Garrett and Landon have just now started using that word! They aren't into Noggin yet but they learn lots of words from older brother and sister.

Anonymous said...

I don't miss the mine stage! My 29 month old now blames her 15 month old brother for everything she does, I blame Wow Wow Wubbzy for that one.

glitzen said...

Good post! My children told people they were not allowed to say "the S word" and they meant "stupid" but of course people thought they meant the OTHER S word. They still don't say stupid, I hate it that much. My worst road rage is when I call somebody a stupid driver! LOL.
You are a good mama. Don't worry, every one of their issues gets blamed on Mom anyway. Hope we get blamed for some good habits too? :)

Aly @ Lip Zip said...

We don't have that "M" word around here. Our "M" word is Mama...and that is not always as sweet as one might think. When the little one wants something, he'll say "Ma Ma" instead of what it is he wants. If I don't act fast enough (or correctly), I get a mad "MA-MA!"

M's are overrated.

Kim said...

I have to say that MUCH TO MY SURPRISE the girls have not used this word. They play really well together, and almost always work things out. I've done something right, because they're 2-1/2 now and good little sharers.

Of course, pride goeth before a fall . . . because just the other day, one girl grabbed a balloon out of the the other's hand and screamed, "MY BALLOON! MINE!!" It's started.