Why I Don't Want My Son To Say "OMG"

I've never liked to hear people say, "Oh my God," which usually comes out "Omigod."I don't even remember when I first noticed it, but I've always felt like a bit of prude for feeling this way.

Unlike most things for which I have felt like a prude for, though, I've stuck with this one. I'll say"Oh my gosh," and I'm sure there are purists who say even that is bad, but they're not my concern.

My concern is that now the second graders say it. In fact I'm sure I heard it last year from DuckyBoy's classmates, which means 6-year-olds are in the habit of it. They have no idea why, it's just something they hear all the time. It's "just" part of speech nowadays, like "wow" or "oh" or "huh."

It's not exactly taking the Lord's name in vain, because you're not cursing anyone out, or angrily saying "Jesus Christ!" like sometimes people will do. But it just makes God's name ... meaningless. To me that's even worse. The name of the Creator of all life is reduced to ... a throwaway phrase? An empty fill-in? Sad. (Some of these kids go to Christian churches, too.)

Now there's OMG. The phrase is so pervasive that it's got a text shorthand version. The kids just say "OMG" sometimes.

And I'm not sure how I feel about that. Because I know the origin is not people who didn't want to type out "oh my gosh."

I can say "G for gosh" to myself when I see or hear OMG, so it's a little better, but not much.

I have asked DuckyBoy not to say "Oh my God," and he's been really good about respecting me on that (even though I know he hears it all the time). But what do I do about OMG? It's kind of its own thing at this point, an exclamation with no background meaning. I'd rather he say that than "Oh my God."

But I'd really rather he not say OMG, either.

Husband just told me this morning that he read someone who believes CS Lewis is evil because he used the phrase "Gee whiz" in his books, which apparently was originally shorthand for "Jesus's whiskers."

Is OMG really that different?

I'll see how often DB comes out with OMG. If it becomes a habit, I'll ask him to stop. I'm sure he'll think I'm the worst mother in the world sooner or later anyway, so I might as well stand up for what I believe in. Right?