A Horrifying Conversation

The other day at our house something really bad happened. Not earthquake-in-Haiti bad, but makin'-your-Mama-look-like-a-bad-egg bad.

My sweet, used-to-be innocent, 4 yr. old discovered the word "boobies". GASP!

Last week I decided to be more proactive in the friend area and invited a little girl from our neighborhood over to play with Cadie Lu. (Also, Els has afternoon kindergarten and I needed Cadie Lu to be kept busy for once!)

The play date was going swimmingly. The girls were playing some sort of princess game involving Ariel, among others. I was doing some PTA stuff - which means I'm easily and willingly distracted - and listening in to some of their conversation when I heard this:

Cadie: "Let's pretend Ariel's boobies are all sparkly and her fin is purple".
Friend: "Okay!"

Me: "WHAT?".....

Playing it cool, like good moms do, I decided to address it after Friend went home. Of course, parental obligation made me mention it to Friend's mom when she came to pick her up. I swore to her that I never used that word and was sorry if Friend picked it up.

Later, over a cozy lunch of pbj's, I asked Cadie Lu where she'd heard the word.

Cadie: "Uh... I think my arm pits told me." She lifted up her arms and pointed to those sneaky little pits. Nice move. But it didn't get me off her trail.
Me: "Okay, well it really isn't a nice word. Could you maybe say chest instead?"
Cadie: "Uh...." she paused while her wily eyes glanced around the kitchen for a moment. "No. Chest is boring and it gets a thumbs down from me." She held up her hand showing me the thumbs down sign. "But I REALLY like the word boobies. It gets a big thumbs UP from me!" And she held up her thumbs up sign really high in the air to drive home the point.

I will admit, I almost cracked and smiled when she told me she really liked it and that it gets a thumbs up. Because that's kinda funny. Then I remembered, if she uses that word in public then everyone will think she picked it up from home. Back to the task at hand.

Me: "Well, I think boobies isn't a nice word and would really appreciate it if you'd stop using it."
Cadie: She climbed down off the bar stool and as she walked away she said, "I don't think so Mom. Boobies is too fun. I love it and think I'll keep using it."

I'm still speechless. The entire thing went wrong. (As opposed to when these little talk actually work out!)

So, if you come to visit and hear a little voice down in the playroom talking about sparkling boobies, please, PLEASE don't judge me. I tried. Boobies won.