tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post4351484977340630997..comments2024-03-10T20:46:19.274-04:00Comments on In the Middle: The F-WordCord J. Whitakerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06224143153295429986noreply@blogger.comBlogger12125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-85810873898780460902008-08-05T02:44:00.000-04:002008-08-05T02:44:00.000-04:00You did it just right, Jeffrey, to my way of thin...You did it just right, Jeffrey, to my way of thinking because not only were you accepting and forgiving and *pedagogical* in the best sense, you also keep open and indeed further develop a mode of openness and *hospitality* between you and your son that will only serve you both as these discussions grow in depth and consequence through the years.<BR/><BR/>I ship my first born, Sam, off to college ferchrissakes in three weeks. _Dr. Spock's Baby and Childcare_ is great for facilitating independence in a child but utterly fails to instruct parents about being independent after 18 years! It's harder than I ever imagined and better too. ~sigh~dtklinehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14754509776199786016noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-16456462322577621092008-07-31T07:34:00.000-04:002008-07-31T07:34:00.000-04:00Not too harsh at all! Eh -- I swear far too much,...Not too harsh at all! <BR/><BR/>Eh -- I swear far too much, and am always happy when I seem to be able to switch it off (not so much while my nephew is kicking my ass at video games) in the right company. I'm much more concerned that kids learn to differentiate between groups of people and situations and moderate their language appropriately. Honestly, I'm almost less offended by kids swearing than I am by students who write me e-mails as if they were texting.Another Damned Medievalisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05231085915472400163noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-28687948588106019272008-07-30T18:13:00.000-04:002008-07-30T18:13:00.000-04:00I think you gave the perfect response. Some people...I think you gave the perfect response. Some people place too much emphasis on the absolutes of propriety, regardless of situation. Learning when and where to use a particular word is a more subtle task, but a much more appropriate one for a person with any intelligence at all.Erynnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08297413089914906458noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-36642129211189139562008-07-30T13:32:00.000-04:002008-07-30T13:32:00.000-04:00When my son first on a proper long scout camp some...When my son first on a proper long scout camp some distance away (aged around 10), i think that I spent more time thinking about him than I would have done when he was at home. <BR/><BR/>When he got back, I am afraid that we smelt him before we saw him - he had had an excellent time ... including seeing his best friend turn blue with exhaustion and taken off in an ambulance (great fun!)<BR/><BR/>Then there was the time I collected him and his sister from another scout camp - in a week of torrential monsoon-like rain - and they both slept solidly for the best part of two days. They had learnt all kinds of 'street' stuff - very useful as they got older!<BR/><BR/>Are you sure your son hasn't inherited your dry sense of humour? <BR/><BR/>For fear of embarrassing them I will sign off anonymously!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-55454705681108356552008-07-30T11:53:00.000-04:002008-07-30T11:53:00.000-04:00We got the following letter from our 11 year-old w...We got the following letter from our 11 year-old who is at camp.<BR/><BR/>"Please write more interesting letters. Camp is awesome."<BR/><BR/>Well, he is clearly having a good time, but the first sentence has yet to be deciphered. Are our letters interesting and he wants more of them, or are our letters boring and he wants them to be more interesting? When he comes home in a few weeks I'll have to ask him. In the meantime, I just keep sending him letters, hoping that they are to his liking.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-12882798058296297532008-07-30T10:38:00.000-04:002008-07-30T10:38:00.000-04:00Oh, and Prof de Breeze: well put! Since you, like ...Oh, and Prof de Breeze: well put! Since you, like me, are a fan of Dr Seuss, I will confide that when my kids were preverbal, from time to time as I was reading The Lorax or Fox in Socks or Hop on Pop, I would change the rhymes <EM>a little bit</EM>. It is possible that some very bad words implanted themselves in their minds that way ...Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-68551786687919246532008-07-30T10:31:00.000-04:002008-07-30T10:31:00.000-04:00Nicola, although I want to buy into your attractiv...Nicola, although I want to buy into your attractive vision of camp shenanigans, what's sad about my son is his utter lack of guile. I know him well enough to recognize his characteristic earnestness in that note.<BR/><BR/>I blame myself (<--oh, look, that is where he learned to blame himself) because I am such a terrible liar. So bad, in fact, that I don't really attempt it any more: it's no use, I just can't pull it off. My only mendacity-related ability is to be able to say something truthful with such forthrightness that it <EM>seems</EM> like a lie. Anyway, what this comes down to is that my kids are both also terrible liars -- and so, because they can't win at that game, they stick with annoying earnestness like dad.<BR/><BR/>Really.<BR/><BR/>Mom on the other hand ...Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-35489276933619263832008-07-30T10:22:00.000-04:002008-07-30T10:22:00.000-04:00I definitely don't think you should have been hars...I definitely don't think you should have been harsher. You were right, after all: it's just a word. And most of us would likely admit, were we being completely honest, that it's one of our favorite words. My 72-year-old mother-in-law, for example, recently admitted that her great fondness for the film <I>Knocked Up</I> is based almost entirely on the way the characters use the f-word.<BR/><BR/>My own pop culture confession? After watching the film <I>Juno</I>, I told my wife that I want our daughter to talk just like Juno when she grows up, profanity and all. Yeah, she has to learn what words are okay to say to her teachers and such, but that's really about rhetorical situation, not language, right?<BR/><BR/>And if we need a more scholarly example, ask the following: do you find yourself wishing that Chaucer had learned to watch his potty mouth?Prof. de Breezehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15058193046200756821noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-4385286610421432332008-07-30T09:14:00.000-04:002008-07-30T09:14:00.000-04:00Keep the fish, throw back the word!I imagine kids ...Keep the fish, throw back the word!<BR/><BR/>I imagine kids at camp cracking up while trading their self-disciplining emails to parents.Nicola Masciandarohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01279665722551517693noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-33133879981317570162008-07-30T09:01:00.000-04:002008-07-30T09:01:00.000-04:00I heard that there is a Bowdler doll, but he is mi...I heard that there is a Bowdler doll, but he is missing his most exciting bits.<BR/><BR/>The F-word begins of course with F, but it ends in "uck." Yes, it is "firetruck."Jeffrey Cohenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17346504393740520542noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-13314480801615132762008-07-30T08:53:00.000-04:002008-07-30T08:53:00.000-04:00Is the F-word "family"?Is the F-word "family"?Karl Steelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03353370018006849747noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-21165575.post-59891144515447230952008-07-30T08:46:00.000-04:002008-07-30T08:46:00.000-04:00Um, should you have been harsher? Is that a rhetor...Um, should you have been harsher? Is that a rhetorical question? The answer is "no," as Alex is clearly already too hard on himself. Maybe you can buy him a special Thomas Bowlder figurine who could expurgate the "naughty bits" from Alex's books. Technically, this figurine doesn't exist, so you would have to commission its making.Eileen Joyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13756965845120441308noreply@blogger.com