Maybe it is just me, but I've noticed that having kids has opened the door to me being incredibly juvenile. Not that I wasn't juvenile before I had my girls. Inappropriate comments and laughing at the lowest forms of humor has always been a part of me. I pride myself in being very un-PC.
I've never been above dropping a "Your mom" joke. Even to the point of saying it to someone right in front of his or her mom. And I know it isn't some high brow, intellectually savvy form of humor. But there is something very liberating about saying or doing something that taps into primal, almost idiotic levels.
The reason I bring this up: Having children (newborns especially) really opens up the opportunities for "That's what she said" jokes. When it comes to babies, you find yourself verbalizing almost everything that comes to your mind. If you have a baby, just take a second to really hear what you say to him or her (especially while feeding). You will say so many things that would delight Michael Scott, and you won't even realize it.
I've started to notice this more and more because I really want to start using more appropriate language around my girls. I want to set an example for them. I don't want them to be that kid who teaches all the other kids curse words. And I have to be extra mindful of it because I really do have a potty mouth. There are few things as satisfying as dropping an F-bomb every so often. But you can't do that around your kids because they are little sponges that want to be just like their parents. Kids are losing their innocence so quickly, and they don't need the nudge from dear old dad.
Trying to cut out the swears only accentuates the times when things we thought were innocent all of a sudden become dirty. My puerile mind needs to find an inappropriate joke. It needs to take something as simple as "Let's get your clothes off" or "You need to open your mouth" or "Are you going to just play with it or are you going to eat it?" or "You need to swallow" and twist it.
I'm glad to know that having kids hasn't forced me to grow up.
4 comments:
I am pretty sure that "That's what she said jokes" may have been the only thing that kept me sane in the early days...
I giggle EVERY time I reference "the girls".
And if you had two boys instead, I would laugh over "the boys", too.
Babies are an endless supply of "that's what she said jokes" in our house too. And I don't think grown-ups raise good children. You need to maintain a little infantile humor to be able relate to infants. Otherwise you're just the stuffy old dad from some 1960's Disney movie. That's my theory, anyway.
Exactly. No one wants to be the stuffy old dad. I don't have any interest in being Fred MacMurray unless of course we're talking MacMurray as Walter Neff.
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