It’s going to happen sometime. Your child will curse. She or he will let loose that four letter word that rhymes with duck and YOU will feel like cursing silently to yourself in shock, horror and dismay. The other day my sweet, angelic two year old skipped into the room, curls bouncing, eyelashes fluttering, in the midst of skip she accidently tripped over a fallen toy bumped her knee and screamed IDIOT!. I was mortified, idiot might not seem that strong a foul mouthed expletive, obviously she was angry, but at two I didn’t feel that she should have that sort of words in her vocabulary. In her case, the influence of the older siblings was a key factor in veering her off the course of sensible linguistics. So what do you do? Don’t fear Parent all is not lost, making sure repeated behavior doesn’t occur is tricky. How do you convince your toddler that the four letter words we like them to use are more like milk or Dora?!. Here are a few ways of dealing with the foul mouthed offender.

1. After being hit with a barrage of offensive words, first scrape your shocked lower jaw off the kitchen floor and right away get going with the damage control plan. The first time it happens, stay as cool as possible in fact ignore that it happened. If you respond quite loudly to the incident, your child will thrive on the attention and continue to say such words. The next time it happens explain it is a bad word and you prefer them to not use such language.

2. Look to see how your child would have been exposed to such language. If you don’t swear in front of the child, they won’t swear in front of you. All behavior displayed by children are learned behavior. Eliminate the source of the offence.

3. For older child establish strict disciplining policies. Make them understand that you have zero tolerance to swearing or using abusing language. Follow up with strict punishments if the behavior persists.

4. Give them the right to discipline you for swearing. When small children are asked not to do something, in their wise innocence they will respond back saying But you do it”. Tell them it’s still wrong and they can also tell you if are engaging in wrong behavior. In this way you are clearly laying down modes of behavior that all should follow.

Swearing is a problem that all families will face. The trick is to nip it in the bud, to be persistent and insistent with the follow up punishments. Children usually swear out of anger and frustration and are looking for guidance from you. Give it to them but explain that they are other ways to vent their frustration than merely dropping four letter words.

By Mayuri Jayasinghe