Booty

A couple of weeks ago when we started correcting Garrett's potty talk he discovered a new word that didn't elicit the same response from us. At the moment we were focused on

"poop" and "pee"

so when he started saying

"booty"

we just let it pass with no reaction. You know all that expert dribble you read about "ignore the behavior and it will go away"


At his first utterance of that evil word I should have screamed, one of those good scary screams where you kinda foam and spit all over someone,
"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT WORD AGAIN".

The trick would have been keeping a straight face afterward so that he stayed scared. True fear, the kinda fear you can instill in your kids that freaks your wife out.
(A couple of good scares wont kill him)

If I had done that I probably wouldn't start my days now at 6am opening my eyes to see Garrett standing at my bedside with that little mischievous grin of his. Once he sees that I am awake and looking at him he gives me a quick "booty, booty". Not "hello", or "I'm Hungry", or some other random 3 yr old grunt or exclamation. Just the dreaded word. And what do I do? I drone on in my head "Ignore the behavior, blah blah blah".

If only the booty call ended in the early morning at my bedside. But that is just the warm up to a day filled saying "the word" over and over to any number of random questions or situations.

Garrett what do you want for breakfast? Booty

Garrett lets go get in the car? Booty, booty

What does Garrett say while walking to school with the girls? Booty, booty, booty, booty

What about the the checkout lady at the grocery store? Booty

When the nice old lady at church says hi to the him? Booty

I actually heard a kid at a soccer game say to his friend after watching Garrett run up and down the sidelines saying booty, "that's the booty kid I was telling you about. I heard him yesterday at school"

The challenge is that booty is one of those words on the edge. Your not sure if you should be offended or not. Is it the pirate booty or is it the booty booty. When I get the "did you hear what your kid just said" looks from parents or folks at church or from tweens I just repeat again and again in my head "Ignore the behavior blah, blah, blah, pick your battles blah, blah blah"

But then I start thinking about those electric shock dog collars that electrocute the dogs when they bark. Can you program them?