My son doesn’t do stand up comedy, but he does use much of the same language made popular by the late great Richard Pryor in his heyday. He usually gets crazy when he’s sleepy and all of his defenses are down, however on occasion he’ll drop the F-bomb just to piss his parents off. Most people think I’m full of crap when I say this but I’ll say it anyway: he discovered his hidden potty mouth in daycare.

I’m sure you won’t believe this, but I don’t curse around my boy, and my wife hasn’t uttered a single vulgarity in the six years we’ve been together. We don’t even watch R-rated or PG-13 DVDs until he’s snoring in his bedroom. Yet, somehow when he’s pissed and tired he’ll tell his parents to “shut the fuck up” for something as simple as letting him know it’s time for bed. That leaves the semi-obvious culprit, which is day care, where he mingles with the kids of parents that aren’t as conscious as my wife and I. Yes I am acting high and mighty on this topic because we take it very seriously, and we don’t curse. I think that’s the reason why his cursing pushes our buttons so much (beyond the fact that a 3 year old should never know how and when to use the F word).

One of the most difficult things about being a parent is that you can’t parent parents.  Though you can hope that you hit the lottery so that you can spend all your time programming your child, and not worry about such nonsense.