"It was Halloween, and my children and I were at the grocery store," says a woman from North Carolina. "All of a sudden, they started yelling, 'Mama, look! There's a witch!' I turned around, and there was an older woman dressed in black. She did resemble a witch, but you can imagine my embarrassment."

Instances like these may not be frequent, but they're always mortifying. William Sears, a pediatrician and a coauthor of The Discipline Book: How to Have a Better-Behaved Child From Birth to Age Ten ($14, www.amazon.com) says, "The beauty of children is that they're so spontaneously honest and politically incorrect, and I think you should protect that. But you also want to teach your child empathy." If a mortifying comment is made, Sears suggests you quickly defuse the situation by saying something else or redirecting the child's attention. Later, explain to your child that it's OK to think something, but that there are certain things he shouldn't say out loud because they can be hurtful to another person.