Wednesday, October 27, 2010

When you say ret@rd...

I've had the misfortune to hear the word "ret@rd" misused twice already this week.

The first time was at the grocery store checkout. Ralph and Zhen were sitting in the back of the cart. Theo was on top in his infant car seat. The groceries go under the cart in this scenario! :)

I bought ten of the same item. The checker tried to just scan it once and type in ten, but it didn't work. He said something like, "well, that didn't work. I'll just have to scan ten times like a ret@rd."

I was stunned. I'm always stunned.

And once again I disappointed myself by not knowing what to say. A simple "excuse me?" would have been fine, but my mush brain was locked up. I feel like I just let my boys down. How much longer before they are old enough to understand?

How much longer before they are old enough to understand that the term is the current catch-all phrase to indicate something stupid, annoying, incorrect, weird, or otherwise worthy of ridicule? If people with mental retardation were universally appreciated the r-word would not be used in this way. So don't tell me that when you say it that you are not talking about my children.

When you say it you score a direct hit on them. And they would just as soon give you a hug. *sigh*

3 comments:

Mel said...

Oh Stephanie... I HATE that word. Olivia would say "We don't say Hate that's not very nice" But it's the only word that comes close to describing how I feel about that word. :( Hugs to you, my friend, you are doing a great job with your boys!!

Lacey said...

You know, I tend to still do that too. Maybe I don't want to cause a scene, I don't know. But I tend to freeze too!

Sally said...

Y'know, it wasn't until I met you that I really realized what I was saying when I would use the word. I've tried very hard to eliminate it from my vocabulary, but I'll confess that it's shown its ugly head a time or two still. Thanks for reminding us!