Nipping potty talk in the ...

[Anonymous]

Darn it. DH & I worked hard to clean up our own language before DS arrived.

DS is now 3 (an only child), has been at camp w/ kids up to 5yo for the past few weeks, and has been coming home w/ some pretty rotten language.

This has taken us a bit by surprise - I thought we'd have more time to come up w/ a way to deal with this. For those w/ more experience, how do you deter it?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Darn it. DH & I worked hard to clean up our own language before DS arrived.

DS is now 3 (an only child), has been at camp w/ kids up to 5yo for the past few weeks, and has been coming home w/ some pretty rotten language.

This has taken us a bit by surprise - I thought we'd have more time to come up w/ a way to deal with this. For those w/ more experience, how do you deter it?

Can you give examples of the kinds of words he's using?

[Anonymous]

I have a suggestion that worked for my kids. Tell them that word(s) is not a word used in our house. Keep the reaction neutral but firm. If that does not work, tell the child that is a potty word and put him in the bathroom where he is instructed to say it out loud as many times as he wants to, but IN THERE only. He says it again, he goes back in the bathroom to say it alone with the door shut until he tires of it.

This worked like a charm for both my DS and DD when they hit that stage! It's a potty word, and you can only say it in the potty room. Becomes quite bo-ring to stand in there alone when mom tells you to go say the word.

[Anonymous]

We do the same thing with DD -- she knows which words are bathroom words, and knows that is the only place she can say them. Same goes for spitting, another charming three-year old behavior. She can spit in the bathroom sink.

[Anonymous]

Are potty words those used to describe going potty? Or are we talking about other language here?

[Anonymous]

I'm one of the PP's above - for me, it's any of the bad words that she is testing out that week. She loses interest after a little while - if I react, she definitely enjoys pushing my buttons.

[Anonymous]

OP here. Sorry, I did mean impolite words, as other posters guessed. For us, they haven't escalated to really nasty 4 letter ones, but still, calling other people "poo-poo heads" and such is something I'd like to curb before it gets worse and put some appropriate rules/consequences into place.

Thank you to 00:52 & 8:57 - those are exactly the kind of suggestions I was looking for.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have a suggestion that worked for my kids. Tell them that word(s) is not a word used in our house. Keep the reaction neutral but firm. If that does not work, tell the child that is a potty word and put him in the bathroom where he is instructed to say it out loud as many times as he wants to, but IN THERE only. He says it again, he goes back in the bathroom to say it alone with the door shut until he tires of it.

This worked like a charm for both my DS and DD when they hit that stage! It's a potty word, and you can only say it in the potty room. Becomes quite bo-ring to stand in there alone when mom tells you to go say the word.

What a great idea. I really like that suggestion.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. Sorry, I did mean impolite words, as other posters guessed. For us, they haven't escalated to really nasty 4 letter ones, but still, calling other people "poo-poo heads" and such is something I'd like to curb before it gets worse and put some appropriate rules/consequences into place.

Thank you to 00:52 & 8:57 - those are exactly the kind of suggestions I was looking for.

I feel you.
I, on the other hand, thoroughly failed to clean up my own act and my chickens definitely came home to roost. Getting it out of the child's system in the bathroom is a terrific idea! I use the car for the same purpose. In our foul-mouthed house, we made a distinction between just saying naughty words and name-calling, which seems to have stuck. Name-calling gets you punished. Using foul language in places where it's not OK (which honestly doesn't happen much now that the novelty's worn off) gets a far lighter reaction.