This stream of thought occurred to me as I was commenting on another blogger's entry today, as well as reading a recent entry from his wife.

My daughter has been exposed to a LOT of cussing/swearing/and general rated-R words in her lifetime. Most of them have been perpetrated by ME. Whoops. But, as I stated above, context is everything.

I don't say, "You are a piece of sh*t!"

I say, "Awww sh*t!"

I don't say, "Damn you, child!"

I say, "Awww dammit!"

I don't say, "I'm going to go f*** your dad right now, so you need to go in the other room and shut your door."

I say, "Awww F***!"

I have a short fuse and often the firecrackers that erupt are expletives directed at no one or nothing in particular. Just venting.

Yeah, I am  the same "religious" gal who goes to Mass each week, sometimes more often, takes scripture classes, and visits invalids and people in nursing homes to pray. I have actually tried to confess this bad habit a few times, and the priest dismisses it as no big thing. To be honest, I've heard some salty language, again in the same "venting" type of context, from my pastor! We're all human.

Along those lines, a few months ago, on a rainy Saturday afternoon, I flipped through our DVD selections and realized I had a GREAT choice for my 8-year old and I to watch together. The last time I saw it was on network tv, so I recall there was some mild language use, based on the (obvious) dubs like "Shoot!"

I had no recollection of something like 3 F's and 1 M-F in the movie. But, again, each was literally just a "venting" curse, not a directed, or used-in-the-context-of-its meaning naughty word. The only truly worrisome line was one guy saying, "I once knew a hooker named Minnie Mizzola." But it went right over her head.

After I heard the first "F" I peeked at the box. Whoops! It was rated R!!! But we were already pretty far into the film and my daughter was howling with delight at the car chase scenes, explosions, and great musical numbers. And of course there is NO blood, no sex; just lots of memorable lines and locations, especially to a Chicago-born kid like her. In fact, I think The Blues Brothers should be required viewing for all Chicagoland residents at some point in their lives.

Once the film ended, my daughter looked at me and exclaimed, "THAT WAS THE BEST MOVIE EVER!!!!!"

Now she's busy quoting Jake, Elwood and the gang to all of her friends every chance she gets (with no swears, of course.)

I just have to think up a good story to explain to other parents why their kids are begging to see a 1980's rated-R movie. Dammit!