Garbage Mouth

We have been experiencing some issues lately with some potty language and finally after a VERY long {read: 1 hour} diatribe in bed by Grayson one evening & me crying on the couch thinking I'm the worst mom ever & someone else should be raising {and disciplining my kids}, Zac comforting me and explaining that what Grayson was wanting was a reaction from me and that I always gave him one and that he didn't really mean what he was saying, etc.  He is so rational, wise, in tune, and the most amazing guy I could be married to.  Also, didn't help that I was incredibly hormonal & emotional.

Anyway, the next morning after we'd all had a good night's sleep, I decided we needed an FHE to address the issue.  So, I found the perfect one.  We were at my mom's for a second & I mentioned that we were having Family Home Evening on garbage words that night.  She nonchalantly asked what garbage words were & Grayson said, "Um, I think it's like recycling."  Haha!  Love it.  Later he retold the story to Zac and said, "That means to make things new again!"  Thank you PBS kids. (:

He was totally excited {as he always is for FHE which makes me realize how important it is & I wonder why it's so hard for me to be adequately prepared & consistent} and helped me clean up beforehand and get things ready.  We all sat around on the FHE blanket & I had borrowed my mom's flannel board to illustrate with the pictures from the story.  The lesson went super well.  I had Grayson be my volunteer and come up to eat the white part of an oreo.  He showed us his teeth & I explained that his teeth were still white and pure.  Then he ate the brown part & showed us and his teeth were dirty.  I explained that garbage words made our mouths & our hearts dirty like that oreo and they made Heavenly Father and those around us feel sad when we say them.  I told a story about a kid named garbage mouth & Grayson ate it up.  Afterward I asked everyone what garbage words they said that they would be able to "throw away" in the garbage on the flannel board.  We crumpled the words up & threw them in the garbage.  When we asked Grayson he said, "dumb, stupid, shut up, butt, you're mean."  Yes, yes, those are great.  {thank goodness he doesn't know any real garbage words because I'm sure he'd grab right onto those!}  I gave up dangit & crap and when I asked Zac what garbage words he said that he could give up his answer was, "None around you guys." (:  So Daddy is working on whatever words he needs to by himself. (;  Grayson threw them away with us & then we talked about the consequnce that comes from saying garbage words.  We wash them out of our mouth with soap.  We said that from now on when those nasty words come out of our mouths, one of us will just nicely remind the other by saying, "garbage word."

We ended with oreos & he loved it.  The next couple days were good.  A couple small outbursts, but nothing like it had been.  And, since then it's been okay.  We've had soap a couple times, but we're aware of what's being said & more quick to apologize.  Grayson is also quick to call us out if we say something we shouldn't & gets a smug little smile on his face as if to say, "You're not perfect, so don't expect me to be, either."  Haha!  I'm sure Garbage mouth will make an appearance in our Family Home Evening lessons every once in a while to check in & remind us.  A very fun & mostly successful FHE. If you're interested in the lesson, I found it here.