Dammit

Ana said dammit again yesterday. It had been about 4 months since the last time, so I thought it had just gradually left her memory. No such luck. We still don't know who she heard it from - it's neither Scott's nor my word of choice - but if it's you, you'd better duck and cover!

The trouble is, she uses it totally appropriately. I had an emotionally draining day and resorted to an afternoon of show watching with her to rest. We ended up checking out America's Funniest Home Videos, which was tricky because I had to try to preemptively fast forward through stuff I wouldn't want her trying at home; but, she thought some of the stuff was hysterical and her laugh is totally worth it. While laughing, she dropped her cup of water on the floor. Oh, dammit!

She immediately looked at me, so I know that not only did she remember the word, she also remembered that it was a big no-no. To deflect her guilt, she said, What's dammit mean? I'm all about actually explaining things because I think that takes some of the magic out of it, so I launched into an explanation. Which was just about when I realized I had no real idea how to define dammit. You try it.

I wrapped up my majorly lame explanation with a, "But we don't say that word. It is not a good word and it is something that is not okay to say. Mommy and Daddy don't even say it."

That was like pouring gasoline on the fire. With my Lady, ultimatums and doom and gloom stuff make her nervous. Being nervous makes her chatty. Ana+chatty+bad word = nothing good can come of this. She broke into a song:

Dammit is a no-no word.
Dammit is something we don't say in our fa-mi-ly.
Dammit is something not great.
Your teachers won't like you to say dammit.
Noooo-nooo-nooo
Don't say dammit.

I have to say, she set it to quite a catchy little tune, but it was not good. Once we reach that point, there is nothing I can do to turn the ship around. I have to hope that it dies a quiet little death tonight in her sleep. Luckily we have 4 more days until we're back in the classroom. Not so luckily we have a playdate tomorrow. Hi, my name is Ana, dammit!