Children have never been very good at listening to their elders, but they have never failed to imitate them.
—James Baldwin
Have you ever heard your kids say something that just stops you cold? One of those remarks that makes you instinctively do a double take? Like that scene in A Christmas Story? Ralphie is holding a hubcap full of lug nuts as his father changes a tire on a snowy night. Old Man Parker knocks the hubcap and the lug nuts go flying. “Oh, fuuuuuuuuudge,” Ralphie says. “Only I didn’t say fudge,” Ralphie’s voice-over explains. “I said the word, the big one, the queen mother of dirty words, the F-dash-dash-dash word!”
Old Man Parker’s jaw drops and his eyes go wide. Where did that come from? he must be thinking. Where did he hear that? Of course, he knows. Ralphie heard it from his father, famous for the “tapestry of obscenities” he could weave with his words when he was upset. The little fellow was simply following in the old man’s profane footsteps.
The point is this: Kids are always watching, eyes, ears, and heart open. They absorb everything. What will they hear? What is going to pour out of you that will soak into them? That’s the question.