Dammit, Dammit, Dammit

How old do you have to be before you can stop explaining yourself, your life, and your child's choice of curse words to your parents? Tonight my parents stopped by for a quick visit. They were dropping off a gift for my husband. It was dinnertime, TheLittleMonster was tired and hungry, not to mention vaccinated a few hours earlier. I am not sure what happened but as they were leaving TLM very clearly shouted "Dammit, Dammit, Dammit!" at a level heard not only by THE parents, but no doubt the neighbors, too.

We've heard these "magic" words from TLM before, when we were alone, in the privacy of our own home however this was his first really public display. We've been practicing "planned ignoring" (teacher term: deliberate avoidance of positive or negative reinforcement of inappropriate behavior), and for the most part this works. My mother however never ignores anything. The eyebrows went up and she immediately asked TLM to repeat what he said so she could be sure she heard correctly. Great, huh!?