Dirty Words and Squealer

Squealer: “Dad, is butt lick a bad word?”

I sat frozen as I considered my six year old’s query. We’re pretty old school (read “legalistic”) with profanity in our household. The word “butt” is verboten (verbutten?) in our home, even moreso if you append it to the term “lick” (or any other verb for that matter).

Me: “Son, where did you hear that word?”

Squealer: “I don’t know.”

Me: “Did you hear it at school?” (“Objection, your honor. The prosecution is leading the witness!”)

Squealer: “I don’t know. I think I heard it at school.”

I think he affirmed school as the origin because it’s the middle of summer and that’s a pretty safe place for the blame to rest. I was puzzling this through when he repeated his question.

“Daaaaad! IS BUTTLICK A BAD WORD?!” he slowly, and forcefully repeated.

Me: “Yes, son, you know it is. We don’t say the word butt, we certainly don’t say it as a combination with another word. Butt is a bad word, so we don’t say words that have butt in them.”

Squeaer: (after thinking for a few seconds) “We can’t say the word butler?” he asked incredulously.