A Little Bit Horrifying

Luke is newly obsessed with the Cars movies. My parents gave him the toy truck (Mack) and the star car (Lightning McQueen) from the movie, and he hasn't stopped playing with them since. He even sleeps with them--the true testament of his love for a toy.

And he has watched the movies Cars and Cars 2 a few times over the last few weeks. 

Unfortunately, I'm afraid he has picked up some bad language from the flicks. I can't recall exactly when Lightning says it in the movie (or in which one), but I vaguely recall him calling some of the other characters idiots. As in "stop doing [such and such] you idiots."

Well, what do you know, yesterday I was changing Luke's diaper and it was a little painful because he had a bad diaper rash (yes, he's still wearing diapers...ugh). Anyway, he was crying and through the tears he said "cut it out you idiots." To which I replied, "excuse me?  What did you say?" He said it a few more times until I was done changing him, and I explained that that's not a nice thing to say and he shouldn't say it anymore. I realized right away that it must be from the movie. He definitely didn't get it from me; that's not a word that I use. I'm more likely to say asshole (accidentally around my kids) than idiot. I was shocked, but I have to say, it actually sounded really funny coming from him. Even so, my first thought was "oh boy, what if he says that to someone at school...or anywhere?!" 

He said it again today when I was changing him and this time, though horrified, I had to hold myself back from laughing. When I cleared the smile from my face, I explained again that that's not a nice word and he needs to stop saying it. I think I may have threatened a time out. Unfortunately Luke is the kind of kid that senses when you really want him to do something, and finds great joy in doing the opposite.

And just now I found him sitting on top of his dresser. I asked him to get down--which he can do on his own--but instead he said "please get me down you idiot." At least he said please...?

Oh man. What am I going to do about this?!