Dammit!
posted in Games, OmegaDotter, Parenting |This weekend, I purchased Uno for the dotter and me to play.
We’ve been non-game-players for quite a while, with a few forays into Go Fish and Candyland. But I thought it was time to introduce the dotter to a slightly more complicated game, and figured she had reached the point where we would actually spend time playing the game, rather than me stripping it of the finer points so that she comprehended how to play it.
I was right. We spent an hour playing Uno this evening, she and I, while OmegaDad cooked a delicious dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and carrot and celery sticks with peanut butter. Yum.
Anyway, the dotter thought it was great fun. But I had reached a point where I wanted a break. She kept pleading for “just one more game!” and I did my stock model firm “No.” No yelling, no storming, no frustration, just plain, “No.”
And when she realized that (as is my norm when I use that “No”) I actually meant it, she said:
“Oooooh, dammit!”
My eyes bugged out. OmegaDad’s eyes bugged out.
OmegaDotter put a shocked hand up to her mouth, with bugged eyes of her own, then hid her head in my shoulder. Giggling. But, yes, she realized it’s a “bad word”.
It’s the first time she’s used a “bad word” with full intent, in the right context, and with feeling.
I don’t know whether to be appalled or proud.
