20 month old swearing!!!! Help!!

[SH27]

Our 20 month old son dropped his book the other day and promptly said 'oh shit!!'

I nearly fell off the sofa!! He has since said it, all in the right context, 4 or 5 times more!!

Whilst it is amusing, I am really worried and not sure how to deal with this one.

I know my husband and I are to blame as we have on occassion, said the offending word! Of course we have now curbed our language, but would be grateful if anyone else out there has had similar problems and any advice on how to deal with it?

Many thanks.

[Chandra]

Other than trying not to say the phrase yourselves and not letting him show you find his using of the words amusing, should be enough.

[HeadFairy]

don't react too much to it, either angrily or laughing because if you do he'll never stop. He'll just work out it's funny to make mummy angry by saying this word. Just calmly and firmly tell him that's it's not a nice word and you'd prefer him not to use it.

[YeahBut]

Ignore, ignore, ignore.

[BreeVanderCampLGJ]

You know where it came from and you know what you need to do, in fact you are already doing it. Nothing more needs saying really.

This is why I gave up swearing when I was pregant. Didn't stop DS coming out with sake(For Gods Sake) when he was about your sons age.

[meandmyjoe]

Oh dear, I must stop swearing in front of our 12 month old, I see him watching my lips and really concentrating on my mouth so god knows what filth he'll come out with

My friend's ds has just started swearing, he's also 20 months and whilst it's cute and funny the main thing is not to let him see you laughing at it. TBH at this age I'd just ignore it and hope he forgets it soon, he's learning so many new words that if he doesn't hear this one again he should forget about it soon, hopefully! Just remember not to say it around him again

[Sam100]

You need to find yourself a word that you would be happy to hear coming from your toddlers mouth and use it consistently yourself - they will soon copy and forget the other word! Ours is "sugar lumps"!

My dd started saying "silly cow" - which I realised she had picked up when we were driving around and naughty mummy commented on someone's elses driving skills

[SH27]

Thank you for much for your advice and for making me feel as if I am not the worse mother in the world with the naughtiest child!!

It's reassuring to know I'm not alone!!

[mummy2t]

my ds1 started saying dozy buggers not so long back. he got it from me while i was driving, someone cut us up and i managed to tone it down to that instead of my usual torrent of abuse i hurl at silly drivers, thank god i did, could have been a hell of alot worse. i always ignore any bad words and see if ds stops saying it. if not i tell him they are naughty words and he is not to use them.

[skydancer1]

My 23 month old Ds has started saying Bloody hell and God's sake. This is all lost on the Spanish fortunately (we live in Spain at the moment) but might be interesting when we meet the British in-laws next week

[elmoandella]

stop saying yourself and ignore when dc say it. if you find it hard not to smile make sure you look away.

[neversaydie]

One Friday evening, when he was just shy of two, my son suddenly said 'damn'. He kept saying it for the whole weekend. My husband thought it was hilarious - damn is one of my swear words (his are usually far stronger). Anyway, we managed to ignore it for that weekend, and the new word disappeared just as suddenly as it arrived. Funny really - as he has never forgotten any other new words!

[slavemum]

would agree at ur son's age the best thing to do is not react to it, sh27.
My ds1, 8, has started muttering 'for f's sake' under his breath whenever he's in a mood, which is quite alot these days! We're very careful about our language around the kids, but they do pick up these words at school, from friends..think he probably got that from neighbour who yells it at her husband quite often!