We were at Eric's parents' house yesterday. There was some painting going on, and I was hanging out with SIL and MIL and Reese and SIL's little girl. The tv had been on in the background all day long, and Bad Santa happened to come on. For about half an hour, MIL and SIL kept saying how bad of a movie it was, and how much swearing was in it. I left the room for a little bit with Reese, came back, and they'd switched the movie to something else because the language was so bad and Reese might learn bad words from it. They seriously said about ten times how much Reese is going to be learning and they don't want her to learn bad words.

First of all, she's eventually GOING to hear "bad" words, no matter how much we shelter her. She might hear them from Eric, she might hear them from me, or from tv, but it's going to happen. Secondly, I don't buy giving words so much power by calling them "bad" or "naughty." Doesn't that make kids want to say them even more? I'm all about teaching Reese that some words hurt people's feelings, so we don't use those words in some situations, like at Grandma's house. Kids are smart, and I'm sure she'll be able to figure this out when she's a little older.

At any rate, it's not a big deal, and I told MIL and SIL that. I think they were maybe a little surprised. Truth be told, I would have rather they just turned the tv off instead of putting on another movie, especially when we were talking about tv and I stated that I don't put movies in specifically for Reese, and I try to have the tv off most of the time. Oh well.