I have always been a fan of kids. Although I have none of my own, I’ve always gotten along and handled kids well. For this reason, I often find myself stopped by, and pulled into conversations with young kids while out walking or whatever. Yesterday, I was taking a walk down to a friend’s house down the street (I think to fix his mower, or or maybe so he could brag about the new one he’s gonna get because he keeps breaking the one he has) and I get caught by a couple of 5th grade girls. I knew one of them, and she just HAD to introduce me to her new friend. As we’re talking, and I’m listening to the 5th grade jabber, I pick up a hula hoop to twirl until I can find my escape. Of course this causes the new girl to demonstrate her hooping skills (actual tricks, not just spinning it around her waist.) This gets me stuck there even further as she brings her mother out to talk about her fire poi, so I fake being impressed, even though I’ve been twirling for years. As the mother goes inside to do laundry, I believe I have found my escape. As I’m walking away, the girl I knew (keep in mind she’s only 10) decides to randomly say ‘You all suck monkey balls.’
At this point I’m kind of stunned. Of course I have some clever remark to confuse my drunken friend saying such a statement, and it would have worked in this situation too, but do I really need to encourage such behavior? It would only invoke her, and probably make her learn more inappropriate items to pass on to her friends. I eventually manage something along the lines of ‘where do you learn such phrases.’ Of course the answer comes from both mouths, “I learn all kinds of bad words from my Dad.” Are fathers really such a bad influence. The father of the one I knew has a bad mouth, but I thought they’d managed to get her away from saying bad language. Apparently not, as she started telling about how she said ‘motherfucker’ in front of that same friend’s mom.
Unfortunately, I was not the parent, and could only discourage such usage. Even so, in numerous situations I’ve heard elementary schoolers using swears I hadn’t barely heard until high school. I’d also been taught when NOT to use them. I think it’s a bit ridiculous how out-of-hand this has gotten. I even heard another kid, a sixth grade boy, talking about how he was looking forward to getting his first blow job from his girlfriend later that week. These kids have no way to understand the effects of what they are doing, especially if they have an emotional link into their partially-developed sex drives. I just think it’s time those parents stepped up into their kid’s lives. They should at least try to earn their kid’s respect, and teach then responsibility. It’s hard enough to battle technology, and peers, but when all they do is fuel the fire, those parents can’t really expect anything from their kids but ashes.
