When I was a kid, I was always excited to learn new words. When I was in first grade, my teacher taught me that “shin” was a synonym for “leg”.

Later that day, I was walking with my mom, when I tripped and hit my leg on the ground really hard. I yelled out: “Oh, my shin!” although my mom has heard: “Oh, my shit.” She started yelling about how that was a bad word and we didn’t say that word, and she was going to wash my mouth out with soap. I was crying, bawling mess of a child, to the point I was doing that weird cry, stutter, hiccup noise. She paused in berating me and said: “Who taught you that word?!” Of course, I told the truth and said “My teacher taught me that word!” and she started ranting about how she was going to call the school and get that teacher yelled at.

I tried to explain, “T-te-teacher said that shin meant leg I’m so sorry I’ll never say it again.” My mom got quiet and realized her mistake. “…What did you say?”

Of course, I started crying harder and I said: “Nooooo it’s just a test you’re going to wash my mouth out with soap again.”