FoxTrot Classics by Bill Amend for June 16, 2012

Merit-based pay.

As much as I was thoroughly amused at Paige’s comeuppance, and while I agree that Ms. O’Dell has every right to tell Paige to knock it off with the bad reality shows next time she babysits, I don’t think what Paige did was all that terrible. All she really did was watch some inappropriate TV in front of a two-year-old, who has the attention span of a fruit fly (like every toddler). Part of the reason why the kid even picked up the word was because Paige had her right there, keeping an eye on her. The effect will surely be temporary and the kid was hardly traumatized.

That said, Paige is a big enough air-head that she probably needed being paid a penny to drive the lesson home.

Agreed. It won’t be the last time the kid hears %$#&. Wait til she gets to grade school.

However, you need to remember that not only was Paige not supposed to watch that show while babysitting, she did so because she was barred from watching it at home. Ergo, she also disobeyed her Mother’s orders too. As far as I can see, she not only shouldn’t get paid, but I could see a 3-4 week grounding in her future

Was it in a water glass?

Hello! There are words out there that should NEVER be used around children, and I have a hard enough time as it is not to swear and keep my youngest sister from developing that bad habit.

So, is she grounded for life?

Paige shouldn’t be allowed to babysit ever again.

I agree! Words are just letters put together. We are the ones who decide their meanings and connotations. None are inherently “bad”, “dirty”, or “inappropriate”.

I don’t think Andy heard what happened, and Paige isn’t dumb enough to tell her mother. So I think she got away with it without a grounding.

If Paige had been smart she would have just said the word just happened to come out as she was flipping channels looking for something that was appropriate to watch with a two-year-old present.

I presume you were refering to hte gosple of John, in which the word "logos: is often translated as “the WORD” (it really closer to it’s derviative “logic”) but the importance of words, esp names was established LONG before that. Actully, the Bible, like all good lititure was using the common beliefs of the time to make a point. Written words were viewed as magical, and the pagans were just as supportive of that. A majority of creation stories involve naming, give something a word to call it by gives it a permanace, a reallity. .Honestly, words are still “magical” today, Just ask a lawyer.