The bad word incident

So what do you do when you're in the middle of Bed, Bath and Beyond, just going about your business looking for a shower curtain when all of a sudden your 2 year old blurts out, plain as day, "It's the full f*#$!, Daddy! F*#$. F*#$. F*#$.

Well, if your me you turn and run to another department trying to hide your utter embarrassment, but at the same time laughing until there are tears coming out of your eyes because you're in total shock that such a word could come out of the mouth of such a small person. And poor Jamie was left to try to redirect Norah's attention in hopes that she would forget about her newest vocabulary word while I was trying to collect myself in the bath towels section.

Once everyone was cool, calm and collected, we decided it would be best to pay for our things and leave asap, for fear that Norah would spout off some more curse words and we would be deemed the worst parents of the year by the other customers and staff.

Of course Jamie and I do not swear in front of Norah. In fact, we've never really been the type to swear a lot. So naturally, we are left puzzled as to where Norah would hear this word and think that it is okay to repeat it. Her use of it seems totally innocent...almost like she just thinks it's a fun word to say. We just wish she could have chosen a less offensive word to have her fun with.

We did have a repeat incident at home, where we tried to ask her what she was trying to say, in hopes that she is, in fact, trying to say something else when the word comes out of her cute little mouth. But we didn't have much luck with that. She said it about four more times before we were able to redirect her attention once again to something else.

I'm not sure what to do in a situation like this. I don't want to bring attention to it when it happens or tell her not to do it, because at this age, all she is likely to do then is say it even more. But at the same time I want her to know that we do not use that word in our house and it's not a nice word to use at all. At this point we feel that it is best to just get her mind focused on something else in hopes that she will forget about her new favorite word. Let's hope that's all it takes!