Dear Snarky
I want to boycott my husband’s family for Christmas day. I have a three-year old son and at Thanksgiving certain family members were dropping F-bomb’s non stop. The final straw was when my son, at a religious pre-school, told the principal he couldn’t wait to see F’ing Santa Claus. I was so embarrassed when the teacher told me this.
My husband and I don’t curse at all and especially not in front of our son, but his side of the family are potty mouths and I’m tired of telling everyone to stop swearing around my child. Do you think it’s too drastic to just say home and enjoy a clean Christmas?
Signed, Furious
Dear Furious,
Forget about the clean Christmas idea. Go and bring a swear jar. In a couple of hours you’ll probably have enough F’ing money to start a college fund for your son.
Here’s the hard truth – your husband’s family are probably going to keep on cursing. It’s a bad habit that more and more people don’t see anything wrong with. (Full disclosure time – yes, I curse and I do enjoy deploying the F bomb on occasion, but I do not swear in front of kids that aren’t my own.)
Now that that’s out of the way – you along with your husband (that’s right make him man up and do it with you) should make the attempt to explain to everyone that your son is now old enough to mimic their vocabulary choices and that they have to show some verbal discipline when they’re around children. There’s a 50/50 chance that might work. If it doesn’t you need to explain to your son that there are certain words he’s going to hear that’s he’s NEVER allowed to repeat.
I also suggest getting everyone a dictionary and bar of soap for Christmas. The dictionary is to expand their word family and the soap for washing out their mouths. Maybe that will drive your point home.
If you have a question for Dear Snarky 21st Century Advice with an Attitude email me at snarkyinthesuburbs@gmail.com or private message me on my Snarky FB page.
Snarky in the Suburbs 