how to stop ds saying "innit" at the end of everything

[zebramummy]

ds (4.2) attends state nursery in London & has picked this up from nursery. As a lifelong speaker of BBC English (bw i do not mean Eastenders) i am finding it tough and i am now thinking of ways to nip it in the bud. I am not a snob, honestly, but it is just so alien to me. I was exposed to just as much slang in my time though I never adopted it within my own speech - could it be a boy thing??

[Takver]

Don't think its only boys, I remember driving my Mum round the bend saying 'know what I mean' at the end of every sentence and en't (as in it en't bad, he en't got any) . . .

[zebramummy]

and does it eventually disappear or is it a life long condition??

[Ivykaty44]

lol - innits go on holiday to cornwall sorry not helpful.
I know like what you mean like - my dd says like where it isn't needed so we always ask what it is like?

Could you ask him every time "do you mean isn't it?"

mostley they don't actually realsie they are saying the word - by pointing them out constantly they may stop - with luck or hope

or otherwise he will as an adult go to cornwall and confirm to the cornish that Londers say innit all the time.

[TeamEdwardTango]

Just start saying "innit" at the end of each of your sentences. He'll soon realise how silly it sounds.

[ChocFudgeCake]

I'll just keep an eye for useful advice. DS starts to show signs of a similar condition, the one that prevents one from saying "Water", so it's "Wa-ah" instead.

[morningpaper]

I would say "I don't know, is it dear?" in a Very Interested Voice every time

[zebramummy]

thanks laughing at some of the posts. good advice - i will try it out! interesting about cornwall - we once went there with a group of 'innits' and they were all treated quite badly apart from us

[FernieB]

One of mine went through a phase of saying 'actually' in every sentence. Sometimes, she could even get it 3 times in one sentence which I was quite impressed by. You could pretend you don't understand him, so he has to explain what innit means.

[Takver]

I think though if you give it time he'll figure out the right 'language' to use in the right situation.
I guess we all like to blend in to a certain extent which means using the same expressions as those we're with - these days I don't say 'know what I mean', but I have caught myself talking about my 'tidy' whatever (you'd have a tidy little car round here for example).
I'm sure as your ds gets older he'll use the right expressions in the right context (eg, he won't say 'innit' if he's going for an interview to be an accountant, but he will if he wants a labouring job on a site).
I wouldn't hold your hopes out on it being anytime soon though, I reckon teenagers are the worst for any expressions that wind up their parents .

[zebramummy]

i guess i have the mock-jamaican accent to look forward to during the teenage years before i am done

[FlamingoBingo]

Get a mini cattle prod and give him an electric shock every time he says it - that'll teach him quick enough.

[ChilloHippi]

If you start saying it, I bet he stops

[sunshinecity]

I had this but with other words, my solution was to tell dc that "our family" don't use that word. I then went on to explain that different families speak in different ways and that's fine but was very clear that it was important that in "our" family we speak "our" way.
I used the same line when dealing with the letter "h" e.g. haitch or aitch. Seemed to work fine.

[Tidey]

Scream as loudly as possible right in his face every time, like as a form of aversion therapy.

I am of course joking. Maybe if you just said 'Please try your hardest to stop saying 'innit' all the time', maybe turn it into a challenge to see how long he can go without saying it. Eventually he'd get out of the habit.

[Takver]

When dd did the 'wa-er' thing (sounds weird as hell with a mix of midland cum welsh accent) I tried to teach her the old thing of
'The water in Majorca don't taste like what it ought-er' done properly sarf lunnon (my mum comes from Brixton, tho she's lost her accent from years in the midlands, so I can kind of do it right) which she thought was screamingly funny, said all the time for a while, then gave up on.

[sunshinecity]

sprogger - a tip for for added effect, I asked my sister to reinforce the message if she ever heard dc's talking that way. This was really effective as they heard it directly from another member of the family and it applied to their cousins as well.

good luck to you all innit