{"id":2443389,"date":"2019-04-24T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2019-04-25T02:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/news\/aspen-princess-word-choice-isnt-always-that-ducky-with-kids\/"},"modified":"2019-04-25T06:25:55","modified_gmt":"2019-04-25T12:25:55","slug":"aspen-princess-word-choice-isnt-always-that-ducky-with-kids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/aspen-princess-word-choice-isnt-always-that-ducky-with-kids\/","title":{"rendered":"Aspen Princess: Word choice isn\u2019t always that ducky with kids"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

Question: What do you do when your 3-year-old runs around in public dropping the f-bomb?<\/p>\n

We knew this day was coming. Living without children for more than half your life, you let the bad language fly. It\u2019s part of our vernacular, a way to put a little more emphasis on something. As in, \u201cMan, the snow in G6 was f\u2014ing sweet!\u201d or \u201cNo f\u2014ing way, dude!\u201d The literal meaning has been all but completely lost, and in many ways, it\u2019s not even a bad word. It\u2019s more of an expression of excitement, which, I guess makes sense in the literal interpretation. In the context of our beloved Colorado mountain-town lifestyle, it\u2019s not an insult, at least not in the passive verb application. It\u2019s more of a euphemism than anything, and in my opinion, relatively harmless.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t help that I grew up in a household where my parents swore with reckless abandon. Once my Dad even went so far as to say, \u201cGod dammit, stop f\u2014king swearing!\u201d That was his idea of disciplining us for our bad language.<\/p>\n

Now that he\u2019s in his late 70s and uses old age to get away with everything from peeing on the side of the road (only during his road bike rides) and turning the volume up everything so high that the walls shake to throwing the f-bomb, not between phrases but between syllables, like the dirty old man version of pig Latin.<\/p>\n

My mom isn\u2019t nearly as bad, though she does have her moments. When she\u2019s frustrated with my dad, she tends to call him \u201cf-face\u201d but it\u2019s in an affectionate way, if that makes any sense. When my brother was little, he was always getting into everything and was a very noisy child. He\u2019d make noise for hours at a time until finally, we\u2019d all just lose it.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod dammit, Daniel!\u201d my mom would say. She got to saying that so much that eventually she just started calling him \u201cDammit\u201d instead of Daniel. I know that sounds bad, but I promise it wasn\u2019t because he was still plenty spoiled. We all laugh about it now, even Daniel. It\u2019s one of those family stories that gets told over and over again, and probably exaggerated just a little.<\/p>\n

It doesn\u2019t take long to realize your child picks up on everything you say and will eventually say it back to you, especially at this age, when their language is growing exponentially. You might not even realize your habit of repeating certain phrases until you hear your child say it back to you.<\/p>\n

One day I was getting frustrated trying to get Levi\u2019s shoes on and he says, \u201cStop freaking out, Mom. You\u2019re totally freaking out.\u201d That\u2019s something Ryan says to me a lot, and he has taken to calling me \u201cMom\u201d which gets really confusing when his own mother is visiting like she is now.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s been a few other funny instances, too, like when he looked at me out of the blue and said, \u201cI can\u2019t get this song out of my head. It\u2019s driving me crazy!\u201d Whoever designs those kids toys that play inane music that seeps into your brain and is burned onto your psyche for all eternity should be punished \u2014 especially for toys that play Christmas songs. \u201cJingle Bells\u201d all year round? Really? That explains where that little catchphrase might have come from.<\/p>\n

Still, we can\u2019t for the life of us figure out where he learned, \u201cLose your f\u2014ing face!\u201d<\/p>\n

He started saying it maybe two weeks ago and it has quickly become his favorite game. He just loves to holler this at the top of his lungs whenever we are out in public, especially at places where a lot of people can hear him. He yells it in line at the grocery store, in the library, and in line at the post office where it is often painfully quiet.<\/p>\n

We have tried everything, from totally ignoring him to trying to pretend he\u2019s getting it wrong by responding, \u201cLose your ducky face!\u201d but nothing seems to be working.<\/p>\n

We have asked him, \u201cWhat does that mean?\u201d and \u201cWhere did you learn that?\u201d and \u201cWho says that to you?\u201d But he seems to understand that part of the fun of this new game is to withhold information. It\u2019s all part of the power play. This is a child with such a mischievous streak and rebellious nature that often, the only way I can get him to do something is by telling him not to do it.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t you dare put your shoes on!\u201d I\u2019ll goad him in the mornings when faced with the insurmountable task of trying to get him dressed and out the door. \u201cWhatever you do, do not put on your coat!\u201d<\/p>\n

At least for now, the whole reverse psychology thing is working \u2014 except for in the case of the f-bombs. I can\u2019t exactly play that game in this context. I wouldn\u2019t even know how to. \u201cDon\u2019t you dare stop saying \u201close your f\u2014ing face,\u201d doesn\u2019t seem to work.<\/p>\n

I know he has no idea what this word means and I\u2019m not about to explain it to him. If I tell him \u201cthat\u2019s a really bad word,\u201d or \u201cdon\u2019t ever say that word\u201d it will only make him want to do it more, as he loves nothing more than to get a reaction. So far, the tactic of ignoring him doesn\u2019t really seem to be working, nor does trying to trick him into thinking he\u2019s confusing it with the word \u201cducky.\u201d<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one thing we do know, it\u2019s this: Karma is a bitch. Oops! Er, I mean, a not nice person.<\/p>\n

The Princess is in hiding. Email your love to alisonmargo@gmail.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Question: What do you do when your 3-year-old runs around in public dropping the f-bomb? We knew this day was coming. Living without children for more than half your life, you let the bad language fly. It\u2019s part of our vernacular, a way to put a little more emphasis on something. As in, \u201cMan, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-2443389","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-17 06:24:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2443389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2443389\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2443389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2443389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2443389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}