Kids Say the Darnest Things

In my house, it's a rule that everyone clean up after themselves. So, once play time was over for my daughter and it was time for her to clean up. She started whinning about how she couldn't do it. Her excuses ranged from, "Mommy, my legs hurts." or "I can't do this. I'm too tired." My normal reaction that I tell her every night was the same. "If you can't pick up and put your toys away. Then, you can't play with them."

Normally, I give her several chances to pick up and put away before getting a little firm. I try to keep from yelling, that's also one of the house rules. In my time of fusteration, my daughter began picking up some of her toys. Inside, I'm cheering because she actually listened to me.

Another rule within my house is no name calling or use of "bad" words. As I was watching her clean up, she had this look of deep concentration. By the time her toys were picked up, she calmly looked over at me and said, "Mommy, your a donkey." This puzzled me because it came out of the blue. I asked her why she just called me that, while keeping my voice in a non threating tone. She replied, "You do know what a donkey is, right?" I stood there still confused. Without letting me answer, she said... (while putting her hand on her hip) "A donkey is a jackass..."

As soon as she said this, I could feel my face get hot. I didn't like her using that language, let alone towards me. I knew this behavior shouldn't be forgotten or over looked. I remained calm and told her how I felt about name calling and how jackass was a bad word. Shortly after, I told her that if she said this again, she would be punished.

Once I get her into bed, I couldn't help but to look back on the situation and laugh. I didn't realize that my 5 yr old knew the alternative word to donkey. Then, it hit me. In the Shrek movies, they do refer to donkey as a jackass. Therefore, she was repeating what she heard on the movie that she watched earlier in the day.

In conclusion, I must say... that I think all movies from now on will have to be watched closely by my fiance and I before we allow our daughter to watch them.