I even thought it was pretty darn funny when she repeated the f-word right back at me-I am a big believer in teaching kids, when they are older, that there are adult words and kid words. Nothing makes me crazier than when my niece tells me I can’t say a word like "stupid"- I can say whatever I want kid. Damn.

I thought it was just me.  LOL

We're lucky in that my kid still hasn't figured out that you can take anything but bananas home from the store, and doesn't yet realize that "in the cart" means that it is coming home with us.

Don't know what to tell you about Mickey D's...my daughter is 2.5 and has still NEVER eaten there.  (which, BTW, makes me think of a tabloid article I saw on how Cruise and his wife are denying Suri a normal life.  "No Happy Meals and No TV" the headline screamed.  Yeah, well, none for Rory either.  LOL)

Not cleaning is a habit I've picked up from my mom (as is overeating) and Rory is starting to watch too much TV (how can you avoid a TV wider than she is tall?) from the brother.

Oh, and the profanity.  LOL

Dad eats Doritos, so now DH, 18 mos, always wants them.  He can have a few.  And we break them into tiny pieces so he can eat them reeeaally slowly.  It concerns me that he sees us drinking soda (DH much more than me, but...) We don't let him have it, but I don't want him to even know of it as a common beverage.  I never did as a kid, just rootbeer on special occasions, and I think that was good for us.

I guess you could say we've got a stick up the butt, but we pretty much have banned soda and junk food from the house. I'm really careful about the nutritional content of snacks.    Both my husband and I have weight issues in our family, and he had a lot of soda in his house growing up and he "can't eat just one" when it comes to chips, so we just avoid it all.  We do, however, indulge in a trip to a fast food restaurant on occasion, probably monthly.  We're not complete meanies!

We don't watch a lot of adult TV when the kids are around. And we do watch our language, it seems hypocritical to tell them they can't say stupid and then to turn around and say it yourself.  I can actually see your perspective as well, however.

Shopping is a toughie.  My sons don't seem predisposed to want to shop, they don't pretend to shop at home.  But they certainly do ask for things at the store. Still, I guess we've done well enough in convincing them they can't have everything they want because they don't make us miserable if we say no.  I was expecting to never hear the end of it when we banned "fruit snacks" but they got over it quickly and really never ask for them anymore.

I love to shop myself, but I prefer to shop alone or with a girlfriend, having a 5 year old and 7 year old boy with me interrupts my clearance rack zen.

The habits I fear I am imparting to my kids are my tendency to raise my voice, and my involuntary tendency to roll my eyes.  Miles is working hard on learning that one, and at the moment it's a real "Do as I say not as I do" situation for me because I simply cannot control it!!!

my kids picked up was a penchant for Fritos.

My kids hear yelling at them, so now they yell at each other and - I hope not - but maybe classmates as well.  Oy.  Their dad is just plain mean sometimes.  It kills me but what can I do?

As for shopping, I decided long before I had kids that mine would never have the "I want it" tantrum in a store.  We never indulged them with impulse buys.  So they're 10 and 7 and they don't ask for things in the store.  We can go to the store and get ingredients to make a dinner or a dessert, or laundry detergent, and treats rarely ever get placed into the cart.  They can also watch commercials on TV and analyze what the advertiser is trying to communicate - that their product is great (which may be a fabrication) and the actors are only pretending to like it.  The toy will break and the sugar-sweetened cereal will rot your teeth.  So I have kids who don't ask for stuff.  Mission accomplished.

I have to say that that my kids aren't perfect, but in terms of being consumers, they are skeptics like their parents.  And even though we're drowning in stuff in our house, it doesn't get here by way of a shopping cart.  We don't really have the "disposable income" to dispose on whim purchases.

My kids picked up road rage from their Dad.  My normally easy going mild mannered husband gets really bugged in traffic and swears, etc.

Both my daughter and son picked up this behavior now that they are drivers.  I hate it.

Lessee.....When #1 hears a car horn, she automatically goes "F***!".  Thank You L.A. traffic.  
We really have to watch our tone of voice and our cursing-oh and Dad has to watch his inappropriate words.
She said "prophylactic" right after he did the other day.
That'll be a good one for the MIL. :)
We have limited her tv watching to one movie while I'm cooking dinner, and they have to be approved by Mom and Dad.  No hyper, in your face, "commercially" sh**.  Her faves are "Singing In The Rain" and "Fantasia".  I'll take some adult content to obnoxious "consume me" charecters any day.
Oh and she loves to fart and say "Where's The duck?".  Dad again.

i don't do it too much in front of the kids (or in general), but when something doesn't go right, you might hear a "sh*t!" come out of my mouth. my son picked up "damn" and was saying that. we made the classic mistake of making a big deal out of it, so of course he kept doing it. now we ignore it and he's morphed into saying, "damn, traffic jam, traffic jam." as though jam were the curse word. we chuckle at him behind his back.

otherwise, i think we're doing okay on the consumerism. my kid will ask for stuff in the store, but we usually say no unless it's something he really could use and it's reasonably priced. he knows the term "pricey" and will ask if something is too pricey. he'l accept it if we say yes.

w/ a mournful shake of her head..."We can't afford it!" (hee!)

DS is 19 months and has just began a new behavior.  If I'm at the computer and he doesn't want me to be, he walks up, pokes me in the leg, and says "All done," with the sign that we taught him to show he's finished eating.  I think it's hysterical.

We feed him better than we ourselves eat.  He's never had soda, and doesn't seem real interested (or hasn't noticed) when we eat things that are different than what he has.  If we have ice cream, which he does like, he can still be put off pretty easily with just a taste or two.  We watch adult TV (he's barely ever seen a kids' show) and he doesn't seem much interested.  I'm not going to stop that, though.  When I was growing up, we always watched the news while we ate dinner, and while we didn't often have in-depth conversations about the news of the day, I do remember being aware of issues when I was in 4th or 5th grade.  My niece is in junior high and still not allowed to watch the news.  I'm not sure how she's ever going to form an interest in the outside world.

I do have to start watching the language though.  My little mimic-monkey likes to say the last thing we say, so I've been hearing "shit" a few too many times!

are extremely harmful, I think some of this stuff gets way-overanalyzed.  I grew up in a house w/swearing, TV, a numerous other bad habits and I turned out okay.  Well, maybe after therapy.  ;-)

Seriously, though... no one's perfect.  Sometimes I think stuff like this is just more fuel for mommy wars.  And guilt.

This is my "go to" thought for family life decision-making. If the change will not make at least a 10% difference in our lives- I let it go.

If I think it will make more than a 10% difference, I try to make a decision in the "choose your battles" mode.  This is to say, is it important enough to me to fight for it? and enforce it- over, and over, and over again.

I think what is most important is making a conscious decision about what is right for your family.

Recently, I've been surprised at how many things that I never thought would bother me really make me crazy coming out of my kids' mouths.
Since my oldest started kindergarten, his speech has changed dramatically.  My husband and I don't really swear much to start with, so I'm not really worried about that.  But he's come up with a lot of really pejorative words recently, and the way he says them has really changed.  We've done from him yelling, "that's so silly!" to rolling his eyes and saying, "That's the STUPIDEST thing I've EVER seen" and calling people losers.  I know, I know, there are worse things in this world, but it's a real shock to see your sweet little boy positively dripping with disdain and directing comments like that toward other people.  

So I'm trying to take more of a "big picture" approach to it.  Rather than making it a rule that he can't call his little brother a loser, we're trying to emphasize how powerful words and vocabulary are and how they impact other people.  It's a big message for a five year old and I don't expect he'll really stop calling people stupid losers anytime soon, but I think it'll will serve him better in the long run than really trying to micromanage his vocabulary.

Shopping and buying "stuff" is definitely an area I'm working on, hence the Consumerism Diet.  The boys really don't toss stuff into the cart or throw tantrums over things, largely, I think, because it's never worked.  But I know that I'm still not sending the right message by the "but I want it" stuff I'm buying for myself, so I'm trying to emphasize responsible choices there, too.  My oldest had a total meltdown about a year ago over a Mater keychain at Home Depot.  I told him that I didn't have money for that today, but he's more than welcome to buy it with his own money.  On his own, he decided to start doing chores to earn money, and it's worked well since.  Of course, they're 5 and 4, so I'm sure it's still a work in progress.  And the more I can get my own spending in check, the easier it will be for them to learn.

It's VERY important to me that the boys find some sort of physical activity that they really enjoy and learn to appreciate fitness and health.  That's a message that I really missed out on growing up and I don't think I would have had to struggle with my weight as much as I have, had I gotten it.  That's a total lead by example one, I think, so even when I don't WANT to go work out, I make myself go to something.

Eating habits haven't been that big an issue.  We don't eat fast food.  We are trying to eat out less, and when we do, I don't give them the run of the kids menu.  I pick three or four things and let them  choose from there.  If they complain, I point out that they don't get a choice at home.  At home, I do all of the grocery shopping, so there's really no argument there.  We talk a lot about how some foods make you big and strong, so that's what we try to eat a lot of, and while other foods taste really good, they really don't help your body.  So those are just special treats.  I do try not to reward with food and keep food pretty emotionally neutral.   I'm a huge emotional eater, so it's really something I need to work on that I think will have some benefit to them, long term.  I don't think anybody is feeling too deprived, other than my husband, and he can get over it and buy a chocolate bar on the way home from work whenever he wants.  :)

I need to work on not yelling and being more patient.   I need to continue to show them that apologies and acknowledging mistakes go a long way, but it has to be sincere.

I completely agree with happy clam about picking your battles.  I guess I try to emphasize overall attitudes rather than setting a whole lot of rules, unless it's a real safety issue.  I'd rather them decide to finish their work because they see the benefits/consequences to not doing it than to constantly harangue them about stuff that's really pretty trivial.

I didn't mean to write a novel.  

The End.