Owen Knows A New Word

My precious seven year old learned a new word at football camp yesterday. And it's such an ugly word that it pisses me off to even type it because he shouldn't have been exposed to it at his age.

And I shouldn't have had to have explained what the word meant to him. But I did. Because I want him to understand that it's not acceptable to use this word or hang out with kids who do.

I picked him up from camp and the coach was laying into the kids about a few of them using "curse words." Frankly, I figured it was Owen saying bad words so I asked Owen what that was all about.

He replied that there was a rumor going around because some kids said that he and his friend kissed and then some kids started calling them faggots.

Yeah. You read that correct. Faggots.

WTF?

I asked him how that made him feel and he said mad because he wasn't kissing his friend. They were just leaning over talking.

Then I realized that he was just mad because they said that he was kissing his friend. He didn't know what the word meant. So I told him what the word meant.

Then we had a 20 minute conversation about the fact that the word was meant to be a hateful word used to describe two people of the same sex who love each other. Then I also told him that his father and I didn't condone him or his brother EVER saying that word or any other word that is used in a hateful manner for the sole purpose of making people feel bad.

Curse words are one thing. Words that are used for the express purpose of hurting someone is another thing all together and is not acceptable in our house. Ever.

And the boys would never say them.

And do you know how old the kid was that started calling them faggots was? 7. Yep. You read that right. 7.

And do you know what that tells me? That that 7 year olds' parents have instilled that that type of behavior is acceptable.

And that's even more sad.