four letter words

In a below post, I made mention of the fact that I've only sworn in front of my boy once in the course of our relationship. I always get the wide range of reactions when I reveal this fact to people...so I thought that this topic warranted a blog post of it's own.

Now...I have to make some things clear.  The boy is from New Jersey and has the vocabulary to prove it.  I was no means sheltered growing up and I've heard (and said) my fair share of that vocabulary.  However, I've made the conscious decision to not use that vocabulary in front of the boy.

I vividly remember sitting with a friend who when she heard this, responded with a "...I feel sorry for you."  To this day, I cannot fathom why she felt sorry for me.  Does she feel sorry for me because I can't tell my man how much I f'n love him?  Does she feel sorry for me because when the boy and I fight...I don't use profanity to get my point across?

Last year, Adam and I made the trip to visit some friends.  While visiting, this topic came up...which caused a rather lengthy Q&A session.  In their eyes, my lack of swearing in our relationship meant that we had all kinds of crazy boundary issues.  They wanted to know if we farted in front of each other, if we shared each other's food, and if we had done more than hold hands.  Now, I don't make a habit of farting in front of the boy...but I'm sure that it's happened.  We share each others food and we've done more than just holding hands.  (Sorry Mom!) My lack of four letter words is by no means a reflection of our level of intimacy with each other.

I try to analyze myself from time to time to figure out why I've made this decision.  I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that I grew up with a saint of a mother.  In my house, no matter what we heard my dad saying while watching football games on Saturdays, the mere mention of the word "butt" or "shut-up" was enough to get my brother and I in trouble with her. I can only remember hearing her swear once in my whole entire I was growing up and that was when I was in High School.  Perhaps this decision of mine, this small act of keeping my vocabulary clean, is my way of trying to be a little bit like her.


xoxo,
j