Language alert; If you are offended by foul language, you may want to skip this post. I make no excuse for this because this is a part of parenting.
One of the things we do as parents, is try to instill in our kids, the appropriate time and place to use certain words or phrases. Its bad enough that when they are learning how to speak, words like truck, ship, hill, etc. are enunciated clearly, and with great enthusiasm I might add, in their 4-letter-word counter part. How do you convey to a 2-year-old, that there is no "F" in truck? Of course my biggest downfall is the fact that I cannot help myself from laughing when this happens. This serves only to encourage the child to say that word more, and draws "stink eye" from my sweet wife.
Apollo latched on to the words infection and affection at 3 1/2. He was banished to the bathroom if he felt inclined blurt those words out at the top of his lungs, which he often did...repeatedly...because yes, I would start laughing. The only way to counter this was to teach him that those were potty words and they should only be used in the 'potty room'. Melanie's idea by the way. He understood perfectly, however, I can tell you, he would get in the bathroom and just let loose with his words. I would have to leave the house just to save face with my wife for laughing so hard. On top of his bathroom outbursts, he would occasionally incorporate a colorful word or phrase into a random conversation. Obviously he heard these things somewhere. I have my suspicions as to where, but the wife and the older boys aren't confessing to anything.
Now Apollo is nearly 6 and well into kindergarten. We have not had outbursts like that in nearly 1 1/2 years now. Oh how I miss them. And Orion, although he talks non-stop, he just has not had many word malfunctions...yet. I must admit that I can hardy wait for his turn to come up. I don't know why I find it so funny, but I do.
You can imagine my surprise after a long hiatus from hearing something colorful come out of his mouth, in a random conversation, Apollo tells me, "We shouldn't say 'shit' because its a bad word."
"Excuse me," I say to him, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"You can only say 'shit' in the bathroom," he replied in a very matter-of-fact manner, "You can also say 'shit' if its really loud and no one else can hear you."
Of course I burst into laughter, "Is it really loud now? Because I can hear you and we are in the kitchen, not the bathroom," I reply.
"No," he says, "It's not loud, I am just telling you so you know."
"Good to know son," I reply, "good to know."
One of the things we do as parents, is try to instill in our kids, the appropriate time and place to use certain words or phrases. Its bad enough that when they are learning how to speak, words like truck, ship, hill, etc. are enunciated clearly, and with great enthusiasm I might add, in their 4-letter-word counter part. How do you convey to a 2-year-old, that there is no "F" in truck? Of course my biggest downfall is the fact that I cannot help myself from laughing when this happens. This serves only to encourage the child to say that word more, and draws "stink eye" from my sweet wife.
Apollo latched on to the words infection and affection at 3 1/2. He was banished to the bathroom if he felt inclined blurt those words out at the top of his lungs, which he often did...repeatedly...because yes, I would start laughing. The only way to counter this was to teach him that those were potty words and they should only be used in the 'potty room'. Melanie's idea by the way. He understood perfectly, however, I can tell you, he would get in the bathroom and just let loose with his words. I would have to leave the house just to save face with my wife for laughing so hard. On top of his bathroom outbursts, he would occasionally incorporate a colorful word or phrase into a random conversation. Obviously he heard these things somewhere. I have my suspicions as to where, but the wife and the older boys aren't confessing to anything.
Now Apollo is nearly 6 and well into kindergarten. We have not had outbursts like that in nearly 1 1/2 years now. Oh how I miss them. And Orion, although he talks non-stop, he just has not had many word malfunctions...yet. I must admit that I can hardy wait for his turn to come up. I don't know why I find it so funny, but I do.
You can imagine my surprise after a long hiatus from hearing something colorful come out of his mouth, in a random conversation, Apollo tells me, "We shouldn't say 'shit' because its a bad word."
"Excuse me," I say to him, eyebrows raised in surprise.
"You can only say 'shit' in the bathroom," he replied in a very matter-of-fact manner, "You can also say 'shit' if its really loud and no one else can hear you."
Of course I burst into laughter, "Is it really loud now? Because I can hear you and we are in the kitchen, not the bathroom," I reply.
"No," he says, "It's not loud, I am just telling you so you know."
"Good to know son," I reply, "good to know."
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