Friday, May 14, 2010

Not that kind of ass


We've been reading Aesop's Fables at bedtime and Primo is really digging them. He loves the fact that each story can be summed up in a pithy moral which he can then recite in an instructive tone to his sister: "Once bitten, twice shy," "Look before you leap." But some of the language is slightly outdated. Last night I overheard David read "The Fox, the Ass and the Lion."

"What's an ass"? asked Primo.

"A donkey," replied David.

"Oh," he said, "I thought it was a pain in the ass."

David explained there are asses and then there are pains in the asses but usually they're not the same.

But the kid can't get it out of his head. As David tucked him in, I heard Primo say:

"That fable about the crow and the water was good. But I didn't like the one about the pain in the ass."

This is how you know you need to tone down your language around the house.