The age-old question, to be or not to be? At Mom Central, the answer remains clear: not "to be."

I couldn't help but notice recently that passive verbs run rampant in our office. The verb "to be" makes its way into nearly every sentence and thought. And, as language makes up the base of all that we do, it became time to institute new rules. What follows, therefore, represents Mom Central's newest set of rules to live, work, and write by.

The following list of words should never appear in Mom Central language, at the risk of unemployment:

Present Tense:

(I) Am (We) Are
(You) Are (You) Are
(He/She/It) Is (They) Are

As in: I am too lazy to come up with an active sentence.

Note: You cannot get around this rule by using contractions, such as I'm, You're, They’re, etc.

Also unacceptable: Present Participle
ie. I am being, etc.

As in: I am being yelled at again for using passive verbs.


Past Tense:

(I) Was (We) Were
(You) Were (You) Were
(He/She/It) Was (They) Were

As in: I was fired for using the verb "to be."

Also unacceptable: Past Participle
ie. I have been, etc.

As in: I have been looking for a new job for weeks now.

 

Hopefully this does the trick!

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