Sometimes I forget that Brooke picks up on everything... and I do mean everything... that I say. I am daily reminded of how I should chose my words carefully knowing that I have little ears listening. Her speech is a mirror of my own speech and I have to really focus on that!
I don't use foul language and luckily I never have so it's not like I have a habit to break. It's those innocent words that I say like "freaking" or "crap" or "sucks" that I don't really think sound very nice coming out of my three year old's mouth! I say "freaking" the most probably like "Wow, it's freaking cold out here." I never really thought of the influence it had over Brooke until she came up to me the other day and said, "Mommy, do we have to go make my freaking bed." YIKES! I wanted to hide under a rock. I felt so embarrassed that she had picked up on that less-than-ideal word. I had to explain to her that even though I had said it before that it still wasn't a nice word and we both need to work on not saying it. Crisis averted!
She also picks up on the good things! I often call her "honey" and now she has taken to calling us that, as well. She said to John the other day, "Honey, would you please get my toy from under the couch." Lol! This afternoon she said to me, "Honey, can you get me a tissue, please?" Even though it's so sweet and funny that she calls us by this name, it's not really the most respectful of terms for her parents so I keep telling her that it's a nice word that I just use for her. She cracks me up!
More than what I say, I think that Brooke also picks up on how I say things. She is going to notice if I'm short with her (which unfortunately, I sometimes am after answering 72 questions in a row), if I raise my voice, if I am sarcastic. The way she speaks to others will greatly depend on how I talk to her and how she hears me talking to others, mainly John. I saw this reflected the other day in how she talked to Adrienne. She was headed towards something that she wasn't supposed to have and Brooke said, "No, no sweetie. That will hurt you!" She said it so gently and so lovingly and I was kind of proud because that's exactly what I would have said!
Sometimes it's hard to be continually accountable to a small child for how I speak, I'll admit! Molding and shaping her into a Godly young woman is actually requiring quite a bit of growth on my end. Who would have thought?
2 comments:
Im the same way :( I really have to watch my mouth around the boy. The girls never really repeated but the boy yea he repeats EVERYthing!!!..
It's scary how fast they pick up things, isn't it?! We struggle with not saying things like "stupid" and "crap" - it's hard! The most frustrating thing, though, is other people, like in a store, etc. Obviously we can't control what they say, and they don't seem to care what random little kids hear! Even friends of ours who don't have 2-3 year olds (and even my sister!) say "stupid" and other things like that - not anything worse, but still! Haha...They just aren't used to it!
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