Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Burps and Breams



Today I want to talk about a personal subject matter. Something that makes babies feel relief, kids laugh, and adults embarrassed.


Yup, you guessed it, I'm talking about farts.





My mom will probably be mad that I just typed the word "farts" because we were not allowed to say that word growing up. Instead we called it a "bream". Hahahahaha, funny, right? I always assumed the word was Gaelic for f--t because my Dad came from Ireland and sometimes used his Gaelic instead of English ("Please pass the bainne (pronounced ban-ya, meaning milk), "Feed the huss" (that is not the actual spelling, just how it sounds, meaning Be Quiet), etc.





But when I asked my parents about the origin of the word bream as an adult, they had no clue where it came from. Apparently my parents made up the word so we wouldn't say f--t!





Which leads me to the present day.



When John-Paul was little and he would pas gas, we would make him say "Excuse me" (because we are perfect parents after all!) which sounded like "Scuse me".



When he realized he could pass gas in the form of a burp or a bream, he started saying "Scuse me, mouth" or "Scuse me, bum". And that led to him thinking that burps and breams were called "scuses". All of the other children followed suit and the name has stuck.





I think it's pretty cute, even for such a disgusting deed! When I was talking to my friend Laura recently, she told me that they used the words "Toot" and "Boofah"......which led us to thinking about how everyone else refers to passing gas.





So let loose (pun intended!) and tell me what you call them!!

9 comments:

  1. I love how your son says it and now it is a family tradition!!!
    I also don't like the word F@rt. I usually say toot or pass gas. My girls, who you would think are perfect young ladies do this all the time....I, myself have never passed gas. Really. ;) and yes, I may explode one day...

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  2. We just use the word. But there are other words that my husband I really need to come up with codewords for

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  3. "Foof" or "foofies"...
    I think it's a lot cuter :)
    Burps are burps...
    I like the scusies... Smart kid :)

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  4. Here it's a 'toot' or a burp. Sarah giggles and says 'I tooted - hee hee!' - guess we need to work on 'excuse me'! When hubby was growing up, his Southern Lady Mama called it 'clipping buttons'. We (plebians that we are) used the 'f' word. Toot is a compromise :) I like 'scuses'!

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  5. My Dad (who is Egyptian and spoke in Arabic to me) called it "poom poom" (Arabs like to use repeated sounds for things, like slippers is "shib shib".

    So that's what I call it. And my kids really don't know why. :) But that other word is so vulgar :)

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  6. LOL! My grandma lived with us growing up and f@rt was a forbidden word. She had us call them "boopzers" or say, "expelled gas". I have no idea where she got the word "boopzer" from. We got made fun of so much for that word. My bff and I would also say, "traf" which is f@rt backwards. Grandma learned her lesson the hard way though when she once said f@rt in the car and my brother went into our southern baptist church and told everyone that "grandma said the f word." If you knew my grandma, you'd know how shocking that would be...lol.

    My kids say f@rt or toot. I hate the word "toot" though. Especially coming out of a grown man's mouth. He should just say f@rt instead of, "Oh, Daddy tooted." Makes me cringe...lol. I do think it's cute when the 3 year old says it though.

    This is ridiculous that I had so much to say about this.

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  7. I got such a good chuckle out of this one!
    We use 'toot' or 'pass gas'. So far, we've kept the kids from any 'major' burping somehow as of yet.
    Lily usually has the best nose and makes a big deal out of becoming the 'gas police' and asking who did it and telling them how AWFUL it smells! Ah, the things...

    Hubby's family burps and toots as if there's no tomorrow (the men more so, of course) and have no problem letting their toots out. My family, not at all. I still do all I can to keep from tooting and will endure A LOT of tummy pain before I do so...and then in private! :)

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  8. I'm Irish and growing up we used the word Bream as fart was too rude lol

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  9. I'm Irish and growing up we used the word Bream as fart was too rude lol

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