Sweet naivety

William's always thinking about things (he's always been a sit back and take it all in kinda kid) and every once in awhile he'll just start a conversation out of the blue.  I've had more and more of these lately with him and I can always tell, even though it seems so out of the blue to me, he's thought long and hard before initiating it.

W: "Mom, sometimes Lucious (one of his friends at school) says bad words."

Me: "Oh really, what are they?  You probably better spell them so we don't repeat them in front of Calvin."

W: "Um, ok...'D'...'U'...I don't think I know how to spell it."

Me: "Just whisper it in my ear."

I lean towards him and he whispers, "Duh".

I respond, "Oh...were there any other words he said?"

W: "Yeah...'S'...'T'...'U'...'P'...'I'...'D'"

Silently relieved in my mind (and trying not to chuckle outloud) that the revealed words weren't yet too harsh for my young boys ears, I smiled inside at how concerned he was.

Me: "Yeah, buddy, those words don't sound very nice coming from people's mouths huh?"

W: "Nope."

Me: "You'll probably hear people say lots of bad words but just remember how they sound when you hear them."

W: "Okay!"

The sweet naivety of this kid.  I thought for sure he'd heard far worse words already in his life but even if he has, he at least doesn't recognize them.  May he always be open to honest conversations with his Mama.