Children repeating bad grammar they hear at nursery

[caughtinthesnow]

My little one is 2 and a half and I've noticed she repeats some grammatical errors. She definitely hasn't heard them from us..

The main one I've noticed is ' was ' instead of ' were '.

I know it hasn't come from us, because that's how the nursery teachers speak and write too...

It's not ideal is it? Has anyone had this issue with nursery or school ? I would expect a school teacher not to make grammatical mistakes like confusing was with were, but I don't know. I wouldn't have expected nursery teachers to make that kind of mistake.

I corrected my DS when he picked up certain phrases or pronunciations from nursery - 'I wanna go toilet' was the worst. I wouldn't leave it for a child to work out that you say something differently to the nursery staff.

I don't think that wanting decent English from staff providing elarly learning and childcare is snobbery, but then I don't think that being able to speak clear and correct English should be a class marker.

This would bother me. We’re from Yorkshire (though we are in the “posh” part that doesn’t have a broad accent) and I LOVE my county but I’m make efforts to correct my children when they slip into local dialects (for example “dunt” instead of doesn’t). It just doesn’t sound nice, let alone from a child, so sue me.

I was listening to a podcast with Jo O’Meara from S Club 7 the other day and I had to turn it off because of the “wassing”. We was going to the concert” “We was happy as a band” “We was so sad when it happened”.

I feel like people get to the point where they’re old enough to learn how to speak properly, and surely know it’s “were”

this thread is peak mumsnet 🤣

I'd love to read a thread of the funniest things people's dc have said once starting nursery or school.

My own DS went to nursery in quite a rough area in Merseyside and for years when he wanted your attention instead of saying excuse me would just shout "eeeee are" which is "here you are" which he meant as "here I am". Adorable ❤️

For hundreds of years the upper classes have been fretting about the accent /grammar their children pick up from the working class women who provide childcare.

I honestly wouldn't worry about it, they'll ultimately end up building their own identity and the way of speaking that's right for them. In the long run they'll likely take more from their peer group than from either parents or teachers / nursery staff. So if you want to guarantee a posh accent, you need private school (or a wealthy area).

All I can say is once they are older they start speaking like American YouTubers so anything they pick up at nursery will be long gone.

Not in my Irish accent 🤷🏻‍♀️

What an insufferable thread. A school mum told me she was very unhappy her child was dropping the ‘t’ in water due to the pronunciation by the nursery staff. It made me judge her a great deal more than I judged the nursery!

I would judge her too.

I've worked in quite a few preschool/nurseries. The ones with the poorest level of care were the ones with the youngest and least educated staff IME. Oh yes they'd be all jolly in front the parents but they didn't really have a clue about child development and were much more interested in things other than the kids - I wouldn't have wanted my kids being looked after them.

Just my experience but i was very careful to make sure ds went to a preschool with older, educated staff. Not posh by any means but with lots of experience with kids of their own and professional behaviour.

I always corrected my children if they said toilet…cannot bare that word!

I spent a lot of time correcting my children when they picked up local accents/dialect at school. They all speak the same as I do now they’re grown up, which is kind of central Scotland/unidentifiable.

Ironically, my line manager and the big boss at the top of my organization both have accents/dialect that I would have corrected in my children, so maybe I was wasting my time!

If you think this post reflects well on you, you're mistaken.

Bear.

I come from an aich region, and my childrena are at school in an haich region. It bothers me lightly, but I cope.
I am from a region where the to is usually left out of a sentence possibly no the either. It aggrieved my mother greatly and she would explicitly correct me. I wasn't allowed a regional accent either. RP all the way baby.

How is the word toilet incorrect? 😭

She gets my vote.

I love the frequency with which Mumsnetters write “bare with me”. Cracks me up every time! 😂

I don't think it's worth fussing about this from a nursery worker. Unacceptable from teachers and TAs though.

It made me laugh on a post about correcting her children!

Oooh wait until they get to High School and pick up Roadman, 'Init, Bruv'.

I used to quite enjoy parents evening when the little gangster wannabes would turn up with their parents speaking perfectly opposed to the awful ear curdling gibberish they spoke the rest of the time.

We had the opposite problem with DS. He came away from his childminder very well spoken!

DP has a Northern Irish accent, I have a North East accent, so it was probably for the best.

I had in London.

SEN child mainstream state school. After spending buckets on speech therapy from age 2.5, he starts learning at primary :
bruvva
wa’er
the improper tenses you describe
The them / those issues
and some of dem words words sounding like a Rasta.

Other 3, younger & private school.

so, quite a weird mix happening

Good grief there are some insufferable snobs on here!

It is perfectly possible for poor people to use correct grammar.

Some of us can even spell and say aitch instead of haitch. A lot of us also know how to use apostrophes correctly.

Although I’ve been a poor person all my life, on minimum wage at most, brought up on a council estate with very little money, I say ‘different from’ and not ‘different to’.

To those posters saying that childcare workers can’t speak properly because they’re poor, you are being horribly judgemental. Unless you honestly believe that correct grammar is purchased from John Lewis and thus out the financial reach of plebs like me?

One of my earliest memories is of my dad losing his shit when I came home from nursery saying "ta". That was forty years ago. Your kid will learn over time how they want to speak and yes, it might include bad or local grammar but they will figure it out. You can be a model but they are out in the world now with all its linguistic splendour and it will rub off.

Yes, I was wondering why so many people were equating ‘working class’ with ‘poor grammar’.