LouisB:
This is a horribly embarrassing story; it concerns an event which I fervently wish had never happened. I apologize in advance about this. Anyway, back when I was a semi-hippie VW mechanic, I lived with a woman who had a son; the boy was somewhere between one and two years old at the time, IIRC. I worked for a VW dealer where a couple of German WWII veterans were employed as mechanics. In spite of everything anyone could do, the two of them had a horrible prejudice against Jews and often referred to them as G__D___Jews. I and another guy had a very serious fight with them one day and I was still boiling when I arrived at home; the woman asked what was wrong and I told her. Unfortunately, I quoted their favorite epithet; even more unfortunately, her son heard it and took it to heart. It was about two or three days later when we first realized just how much he had taken it to heart. We were shopping in a supermarket; the kid was riding in the basket and he suddenly began shouting that very epithet; the more we tried to hush him, the worse it got. We finally abandoned a cart full of groceries and fled the place; I seriously thought we would have to fight our way out given the hostile looks and comments we received. Needless to say, we never went back to that store; happily the kid never repeated the words again. It certainly taught me to watch my mouth around children. I still blush every time I remember that day.
Thanks for sharing - makes me feel a little better about the “Heil Hitler” thing.
I was about five, watching my older brother play baseball. He messed up a play, and I ran up to the fence and yelled, “What the hell are you doing ?”
And I couldn’t understand why Mom was so mad…
He does, I’m sure, but he’s repeating absolutely everything now, and even arguing with us. The other day Daddy told him to put his Pull-Up back on after he went potty, because it was still dry. Kid said, quite vehemently, “No, it not dry, Dad. Wet.” That kid is just rotten, and knows how to get a reaction. Then he smiles and thinks he can get away with it because he’s so cute. And it usually works.