Squirt was just standing next to us when we discovered that the on/off and speed button of Squirt’s fan is no longer responding when we were about to put him to bed. We moved the fan around, we pressed some other buttons and we gave it a gentle shake. Still the damn thing refused to work.

It had only been few short weeks since the last fan replacement in our home, and that last replacement was the 3^rd in 2 months. Feeling extremely frustrated at the situation as well as how electrical appliances in this country now don’t last for more than a year, we rolled our eyeballs and gestured in exasperation as we tried to get the thing to work.  We broke out in massive perspiration in a 38 degrees Celsius room and muttered soft, inaudible curses under our breath as we meddled with the buttons.

Still, the fan refused to work and we were losing our patience. We cannot believe that we need to get yet.another.fan.replaced so soon. Squirt, who has been watching us working each and every buttons, suddenly let out a word.

A very adult-sounding, “SHIT!”. It was said at the right tone, at the right context and even complemented with the right facial expression.

It took every single nerves on our face to remain stoic as both Silver Bullet and me looked at each other the moment he said “Shit”.  To laugh would be sending the wrong signal. It was a big oops, face-palm moment for us.

With a very low and stern voice, we told Squirt that SHIT is a bad word and in under no circumstances is he allowed to use it.

Spud, who happened to be in her own room, heard the small commotion when Squirt started crying; upset because he thought that we were extremely upset with him for using a bad word.

She was quick to ask what happened and when we told her that it was because Squirt had used a bad word without telling her what it was, Spud egged us on for at least 10 minutes;  wanting to know what that word was. She was relentless and it was annoying! She finally gave up after a firm, “Stop asking or we’ll take your teddy away!”

We haven’t heard SHIT being uttered for a long while…until a few days ago when he could not locate his bouncy ball and I heard him going “Shit!Shit!Shit!”. I had to pull him aside to reprimand him for it and explained to him again, sternly why he should not be saying “SHIT”.

No, we don’t cuss and swear in front of the kids when we are home with them and as foul-mouthed as I can sometimes be, I am very conscious and mindful of what comes out of my mouth when they are around me. But, every once in a while, “shit”, “dammit”, “oh.my.freaking.god” and the f-word slipped past our mouths or being muttered under our breaths. It was those unconscious moments and yes, judging from what happened, the kids have somehow picked up on that!

Yep. The kids were listening alright.  Another reminder for us to filter and *banish* all unsavoury words in our home, because if you think the kids don’t notice or weren’t listening,  you can bet all your dimes on this, that in fact, they do.

And they pounce on you at the most unexpected moments possible.