Naughty Words

I've always heard how nursery totally messes with your child's linguistic habits but hadn't seen it myself yet.

Until this morning.

I made the girls toast and set before Fifi a toast rack which she loves to use when there is toast. Her response?

"Ooh, it's the toast hingmy!"

Ugh. If there is one West-of-Scotland-ism that I hate most it is without a shadow of a doubt THAT word. It is sickening. It is ugly. It sounds like someone clearing his throat of a giant phlegm ball. From the moment I arrived here, it was the word I loathed the most. Many other strange Scottishisms I've eventually picked up - glaikit, eejit, bisom, minging, boggin', pished, crabbit - but that word... "hingmy" still makes me want to puke.

I don't often make a fuss over my kids' language. If I hear them repeat a "not nice" word, I try to not make a big deal over it, only gently correct, because I figure making a big deal over it will only increase the interest in that word. Fifi's come out before with a few choice words (most likely learned from music actually... we still haven't gotten around to censoring our car music), and I always reply with something like, "Fifi, that's not a nice word. Some people use that word, I know, but it doesn't sound very nice and it makes some people upset to hear it."

But when she called the toast rack this morning a toast "hingmy"? My response: "Fifi! That is a terrible word! We don't use that word in this family! Where did you ever learn that word?!"

She could've dropped the F-bomb and gotten a calmer response. Ew.