Well, what are you gonna do? Kids learn bad words from other kids. I remember quite clearly when a friend on the school bus taught me about the middle finger - I thought she was making it up, until I came home and asked my mom!
Hope was already aware of a couple of words, and maybe Grant too, but they had questions about what the words meant, why some bad words are in movies (90's era kid's movies are full of D's and B's!), and that kind of thing. So, Daddy decided we needed to have "cussing class" and just tell them all the words and what they mean. Like questions about the birds and the bees, we figured the best thing is just to be totally truthful and take the mystery out of it.
We split up - Grant with Daddy and Hope with me - and let them tell us all the words they knew. It was hard not to flinch hearing Hope's precious mouth say some bad words! Then we told them the rest of the words (Daddy knew a few I didn't know!) and we talked about what they mean, why some people use them, why we don't use them, and so on.
It wasn't comfortable for any of us, but I think it was a good move. Hopefully it reinforces that they can talk to us about anything, and trust us with their questions!
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