Bad words!

Would appreciate advice on getting little ones to not say bad words. DS (3) picked up the F word when we were visiting a friend last week and now keeps saying it. He is starting preschool next week and I'll be mortified if he comes out with it there. ??

[Vanquisher]

I would sit down with him and say, "fuck is a bad word. Sometimes grown ups say bad words, and they shouldn't say them. It's not nice. When you say a bad word, it makes me feel sad. It makes other people feel sad too.".

Something along those lines....

[Momo]

What a little stinker J has turned out to be !
Heidi' s approach is what we do. Good luck!

[alison]

No advice, but how'd he become three?!??
I think you need to post a picture of him! He was the cutest newborn ever. As in, totally skipped the not-so-pretty newborn stage.

[GrayMatterWife]

I would sit down with him and say, "fuck is a bad word. Sometimes grown ups say bad words, and they shouldn't say them. It's not nice. When you say a bad word, it makes me feel sad. It makes other people feel sad too."

This. I have had to do this before. Worked well. I might refer to making "good choices," because that is the phraseology used at DDs' school.

[Ladybug]

And write your friend a not and tell him/her thanks for being such a positive influence on your child.

Lol Annie. Friend is embarrassed. We were staying at her place and her 3 year old son started referring to the F-ing neighbors!

Suz - Oh but he is a little stinker! I just retrieved the entire contents of my wallet from inside the wall after he fed every single card, coin and bill into a vent! Lol.

Alison - You are right, both my kids came out fully plumped up! I put a photo in the Gallery section.

Thanks for the advice. The talking/explaining makes so much sense and I think he'll understand. So far I have been trying no reaction, but DH has been getting mad (not his usual style at all), so DS is a little intrigued by the whole thing. Good to know what has worked for you guys because I'm sure this isn't the only time it will happen!

[diggitydot]

I have a mouth a longshoreman would envy, but my kids don't swear even a little. When DD1 (who is almost 16) went on the Tower of Terror at WDW the first time, she asked me if she could say "a bad word to describe it". At 14, she still was aware that saying, "That scared the holy shit outta me!" would get her in trouble.

We explain the difference between "big people words" and "kid words" when they start experimenting and haven't had any problems. I think making a huge deal out of it only makes them more interested in using them.

[Vanquisher]

Me too, W. I agree.

[spotty_dog]

In our house, I inform kids that certain words are "rude" and apologize when I use them. It's rude to burp, it's rude to show your privates, and it's rude to say certain words in front of others. Other than giving them this information, I don't really react much to burping, stripping, or cussing. My kids seem to be interested in adopting polite manners, so once they know something is rude, they avoid it. N excuses herself when she burps, and E chastises the cat for being brazen about showing his bum to others, and neither is particularly quick to pick up bad language even though we listen to a lot of hardcore rap in this house, so this approach seems to be working for us.

[DCJenn]

I know I told you all the story about waiting for a person in front of us to make a left hand turn and my then 3 year-old yelled out from the back seat, "Go, Fucker!" I did much like Heidi describes. (And silently laughed hysterically as it was both appropriate to the situation AND correct grammatically.)

He doesn't curse now- he gets that there are bad words that only grown-ups use in certain situations.

J.