Oh dear

I told Adam, "I accidentally said a swear word in my class today."

He said, "You did?" like he hadn't heard me right.

I said, "Yes."

"But you don't even swear."

I know.

I was reading (with great gusto I might add) Ramona the Pest.  I was reading about the kindergarten Halloween parade when Ramona was dressed up as a witch.  She went around the parade yelling, "I'm the baddest witch in the world!"  She said it several times and one of the times I was reading, my tongue got twisted and I said a word that very much rhymes with, but isn't, witch.

I kept going, thinking maybe, hopefully, they hadn't noticed.

Narrator:  they had noticed.

When I finished the chapter, one of my students said, "Teacher...did you accidentally say a swear word?"

I said, "Yes.  I'm sorry.  I didn't mean to."

A boy cheerfully said, because it is our mantra in class, "Mistakes are proof that you are trying."

And a girl said, "And you were trying!"

Then I hoped we could move on.

Narrator:  we couldn't move on.

They giggled and whispered and covered their faces and were just generally delighted/shocked/flabbergasted and I was just generally embarrassed.

The good news is that I have a new low bar.  If ever I think things aren't going well, I can think, "At least I didn't swear at them...."