If I was prone to swearing then.....

I'm sure glad my parents taught me well when I was young because today that lesson sure came in handy.
The time was running down for another realtor and his client to show up at our house for a tour. Of course we want everything perfect so someone will be interested in buying our home. I always pray that "This is the One". Well, I was completely done cleaning everything including mopping, vacuuming and the kitchen spic and span. I always light a candle in the morning to provide, hopefully, a home that smells inviting. The kids were in the car waiting for me to grab my purse, put on my shoes, and the last thing of all, blow out the candle. How hard can it be to blow out a candle, huh? Well obviously today I was not a normal person because I had to go and blow and then while trying to put the lid on fling the candle complete with about one inch of wet wax across my clean counter, sparkling kitchen floor, all over my left arm - fingers to armpit, and fresh out of the laundry clean shirt. If this has ever happened to you, you can testify to the fact that the wax will dry extremely fast and is almost impossible to clean. If I was a person prone to swearing I'm sure a few sweet words would have escaped my mouth and my kids sitting in the car would have been able to hear their "sweet" mom turn into a sailor for a minute. Luckily, I'm a spawn of my sweet mother so all I could do was look at the clock, back to the wax, back to the clock, panic and started cleaning like a mad woman.
Yes, kids actually used to learn things from their parents and turn their punishments into lessons learned. I remember that swearing lesson as if it was yesterday. I was about 4 years old. I walked into our kitchen which is where my mom spent a lot of her time and said something. I don't remember what word I used, that's how well this lesson was learned. I'm sure it was something I heard somewhere else, but whatever it was my mom stopped in her tracks and turned slowly to face me and said "What did you say?" Me, totally innocent and not knowing really what it was I said was dumb enough to repeat it right to my mom's face. Without saying a word to me she grabs my arm and marches me to the bathroom, proceeds to take out the soap, administers the soap to my mouth, tells me to swish it around and then allows me to spit and rinse. Then, she proceeds to explain that the word I used was not something that should ever escape my mouth again. It only took that one lesson and it has stuck with me ever since. So, all I can say is thank you mom. Some of those words may have crossed my mind, and I'm only saying they 'MAY' have, not that they did, but may have. Those words never escaped my lips, so mom you can keep the soap to yourself.
At the end of the day, after all the stress and cleaning the people never showed up to look at the house. Now....just maybe one of the words just might seem appropriate.