I asked Lily and Luke if they were hearing any words on the bus that they knew were ugly words; I thought having an open conversation may take the mystery and allure out of the ugly language that I'm certain slips from the mouth of the bigger kids on the bus from time to time.


Luke stayed quiet, but a sly grin quickly formed on Lily's lips as she cautiously said, Yes...the s-word...shut up. Luke then chimed in to relay a story about a time a big kid used the s-word to him, his excitable tone of voice indicated he was appalled at the boy's use of such language. Shut up, whew, dodged a bullet on that one, but not for long. And the f-word, Lily hesitantly added a few moments later. Big gulp. I looked across the room to see David's eyes enlarge to the size of the dinner plate he was loading into the dishwasher. Okay. Tell me the word. Fart. Whew, that is indeed an ugly word in our house, but I dodged more than a bullet there, I dodged a bomb...the f-bomb. Anything else, Lil? Well, I think damp maybe a bad word too.