Mick read my post and told me I'm a hypocrite. See, I fuss about not wanting the kids to say things like "crap," and I get upset when I see a commercial where a kid turns to the camera and says his dad "screwed that up," but I drop words like "pissed off" and "assshole" in a blog post.
Do as I say, not as I do, kids.
Seriously, I know that I can get a little hot under the collar, but I generally do try to keep the blog (and my mouth) clean. But I do swear in real life, and sometimes, I swear a lot in real life. More than I should admit to, for sure, but I'd like to think I keep the blog mostly clean. And I also try -- sometimes harder than others, I admit -- to not swear so much in real life, either.
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| source: dontwannahearit.com 4/5/2012 |
Is "pissed off" crass and ugly? Why, yes. Yes it is. But I was angry and frustrated and exasperated with that particular location, and I used a poor phrase. Should I have? Oh, who knows. I follow some blogs whose authors are hilarious and throw it all out there and I can imagine being in a room with them, laughing my (ahem) tail off. And in real life, I throw it all out there and stand behind what I say, but I definitely agree that there's something that I can't quite describe, but that's just different about putting it "all out there" on a blog. Which, of course, is forever. And I know that there are some bloggers who are very funny and still manage to be quite polite and proper. I think I'm probably somewhere in the middle, both in real life and in the blogging world. I am not all "bless your heart" (although I should be more of that) and I am not all crass, city-girl language (although I should be even less than what I am), and I think I am just a relatively polite Yankee girl who's got decent manners, but not quite Southern Manners, and an occasional potty mouth.
(We can talk about Southern Manners another time, but have you ever seen My Best Friend's Wedding with Julia Roberts? Remember the scene where she's running across a field behind a table of guests having tea, and they say, "don't mind her, she's from New York"? Story of my life here in the South. Seriously. There are just certain things that I wasn't raised to know or to do, through no fault of my parents', mind you, and I'm socially awkward enough to have not picked up on these things when I moved South. For a long time people thought I was rude when really, I was just an oblivious New Yorker. True story. I'm still not as polished as I'd like to be, but I think I do a much better job at manners in the South now that I've been here a while. But if we are lucky enough to be living in Alabama when she's old enough, CAM will go to finishing school, and I am totally. not. joking.)
Anyway, Mick has said he doesn't like it, and I don't like that, so I hereby promise to try to be better. I can't promise I won't get upset and drop a swear word, but I will officially take "pissed off" out of my blogging vocabulary. That's a good thing, and not just because Mick doesn't like it, but because truth is, I know I can find a way to say the same thing in a little more civilized manner.
Okay, now you know. See the things I do for you, Mick, and the ways you make me a better person? Smooches.
--Jen
p.s. none of this changes how I feel about "crap," because I lump it with all the other four-letter words. I don't think it belongs in everyday conversation as an "okay" word. You wouldn't say "that's sh--t" to your teacher or your priest, and you wouldn't hear it in a commercial, and I still think that "crap" is in the same category, my own potty mouth notwithstanding.
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