What's your 'go-to' word?

Which of the following is awesome: your lunch or the Great Pyramid of Giza? Comedian Jill Shargaa asks this question in a TED talk. She suggests we save the word awesome for things that truly inspire awe. Shargaa suggests we use the word wonderful for things that truly are full of wonder.  She makes some very good points.

After reading the transcript of her talk I thought, no wonder kids are so confused.   Really!  We say a sandwich is awesome, a grade is awesome, a dress is awesome, a day is awesome.  So to a 5 year old what does awesome mean? If all those things are awesome, how do you describe the Rocky Mountains?  Really, really awesome? 

My mother used to say that people who used 'curse' words showed a lack of intelligence.  Clearly if they had a larger vocabulary they would choose different words.  Clearly my mother wasn't around some people I knew who just liked to use 'bad' words.  But we do a disservice to our children when we overuse words or use words incorrectly.  And, it really does show a lack of vocabulary.

As Shargaa mentioned in her talk, a sandwich can be delicious, it can be tasty, it can be dry, it can be a lot of things, but awesome?  Kids need big vocabularies so we need to expose them to as many different words as we can when we chat with them.  Think about the word sad?   We use the word sad for too many emotions.    Everyone isn't sad!   Some are mad, or angry or frustrated or overwhelmed.  

So would this be pretty, incredible, awesome, nice?

I've been thinking, what is my 'awesome'?  My go-to or crutch word is fabulous.  I know deep down everything can't and isn't fabulous.  

So this week when talking with your kids before you fall back on your 'go-to' word, think, what is a better word, a more specific word that better describes what I am thinking?

Fabulously awesome!!