Sucks to be me.

A few weeks ago I was having a conversation with two of my favorite local moms. One informed me she did the old 'washed the mouth out with soap' thing when her son brandished his first bad word.

Intrigued, I whispered with a giggle, "What did he say?"

She looks over her shoulder and breathlessly whisper-shouts, "This day sucks."

The other mom present gave a slight gasp and says, "Oh no. We don't allow that word, either."

I smile and say, "Really? That's a bad word to you? Really?" And the two moms tell me the same thing my mom used say, the word has inappropriate connotations. So I make some lame statement about how people my age (as if pointing out how young and hip I am is going to make me any friends in the instance) don't have the same imagery when we use the word "sucks". We just mean it "sucks". And there's not much worse than sucking, is there?

So for the first time since I was a teenager, I'm aware of this little generation gap that revolves around a particular adjective (not verb, adjective). But I couldn't express myself well so I bumble around until the subject is mercifully changed. I forgot all about the whole conversation until this morning. I was reading Slate online when I came across this article explaining exactly what I was trying to say a few weeks ago. A Defense of the Word Sucks. Leave it to the super cool hipsters at Slate to explain how "sucks" works in contemporary lexicon.

Two post scripts: "Sucks" is not a word that is actually condoned in my house. But it would get "stupid" and "idiot" status. Not "bastard" or "all the other words" status. (Yes, my children have called each other idiots. It's actually kind of funny.)

Second, inspired by Angel at Fantastic Simple, I decided I needed some sort of humiliating ridicule in my life. So I submitted Here in Idaho to I Talk Too Much. I anticipate a response of "We hate you and your bastard face! etc. etc." Especially since I'm a mama blogger. But Will wants to see what they think of the template so I humored him. But I definately anticipate use of the word "sucks" in my review. I'm just glad I know what it means.

http://here-in-idaho.blogspot.com/