Duh.....WhatEver

[PrincessFiona]

My 4 year old has picked up this little phrase. It started after he played with the 8 year old son of a friend of mine for a couple of hours so I'm thinking maybe it started there?? I don't know 8)

It's absolutely driving me bonkers...He responds with a "Duh, WhatEver" to everything...EVERYTHING! My mom has heard him over the phone and thinks hti sis the cutest thing ever...but it is driving me nuts. I have tried talking to him about it, ignoring it...you name it!

How can I extinguish the duh whatevers??????


kris

[Michele]

My mom used to use it back to me....it got so annoying and sounded so uncool that I had to quit using it....but then again this was when I was in middle school.

Michele

I don't know, Kris. Sometimes these "little" parenting issues can be tough to figure out. What works with Bryn and her personality....depending on the situation, I just ignore it for a day or two. This works well for the sorts of things were she is clearly trying to get attention -- so I don't give it, positive or negative. Usually it goes away, but if it doesn't I stop ignoring it and take another route.

The other day, she starting talking about things being "stupid" 8O . When were in the car, so I didn't see her when she said it, but I don't think she was testing the waters on saying it. I told her, you know I really don't like that word because it can sound sort of mean so I'd like you to stop saying it. I was pretty matter-of-fact about it but her bottom lip trembled!! But she has quit saying it.

The other recent thing has been bathroom talk -- she and her friends think it is hilarious to say poopy and iterations of that. So I heard her friend's mom say, "Oh, we talk about poop in the bathroom, so if you would like to talk about poop and pee, you'll need to go in there." Wow, was that effective.

So....maybe tell him that's not the way you talk in your family/house. ??
Good luck!

[SueC]

My daughter is into "potty talk" these days too! I am going to try your friend's approach Nellie!

[mommax3]

My older two had a run of using the phrase "what the...." (only those two words) any time anything unexpected happened. They had no idea what the logical third word would be, but I still didn't like the sound of it and told them they were not allowed to use that phrase. I reminded them for a couple of days, and then they started losing privileges when they said it -- usually whatever privilege struck me at the time of the offense. It is pretty much eradicated now.

We were guilty of laughing when they first started saying it, so that didn't help matters any. The younger one at that time was having trouble saying "th", so it came out "what duh...." when he said it, and that was just too funny.

Sally