Naming Things, Part 2

I am typing this within earshot of my five-year-old, who has been banished to his bed for exceeding and surpassing naughtiness. He is angry. Yea, he is very angry.

I imagine I am not the only parent in the world who listens to the tirade of a very angry, very small child with some small giggles. Currently he is yelling, "Bad Mommy! Bad Mommy! You are so . . . not good! I hate you! You . . .[searching for the biggest insult he can think of] don't tell the truth!!!!!!!! And you AREN'T CHOOSING THE RIGHT!" And I'm thinking to myself, "It's a good thing he doesn't have any more words than that."

Yes, yes, I am a writer after all and thus a believer that the more words a person has, the better for her in life, particularly emotionally. My son needs to have words that can express the intensity of his anger so that he doesn't need to express it in bad words or in bad actions. So I need to do some work with him on increasing his emotional vocabulary.

But what I'm trying to say here is that I'm glad he has been so sheltered from the WRONG words. Because he is mad enough to use any and all of them right now. He hasn't seen any movies, played with any friends, overheard any parents, or been exposed to any other influence which uses profanity or other bad words. I see the benefit to that now. I'm hoping the same thing works for restricting his exposure to violence (so that it is not a tool accessible to him). Also, with our older kids, there's the benefit of restricting exposure to sexually-charged words. (And again, it's equally important to make sure they are given the correct words for things in addition to limiting the wrong ones.)

So, yes, he needs to be able to name things accurately. But I'm glad that he hasn't been exposed to the world's variety of names—at least not yet.