what am I doing wrong?

[mindexplode]

I just had a call from my DT school, they are 5.
DT 1 was caught swearing at school and has been issued with a red card.
DT 2 was caught two weeks ago and punished, at home and at school.

We don't say this particular word at home and try not to swear at all in front of the DT.

My two are the only red cards in the box at school.

I feel terrible - I am a work away from home mum and my DH does the picking up, dropping off etc.

Where am I going wrong - other peoples children aren't swearing

Some of the others will be swearing but out of earshot of adults.

apprently they both owned up when asked, so I have honest children but with a colourful language. How hard do you come down on your kids when you have calls from school?

They need to learn from the other kids and swear out of earshot of the teachers!

Hi OP, don't beat yourself up - your children are probably much the same as anyone else's, but perhaps with a little less common sense to swear quietly away from adult ears!

I normally take a different route when talking about swearing - I don't describe it as "bad" language, because sometimes children WANT to be "bad" and find it exhilarating to do "bad" things... I have told children in the past that people use swear words because they can't think of better words to use. That in fact I feel sorry for them because they can't be very clever if they can't think of any other words to say! Most of the children respond to this very positively and immediately start thinking of other, much more clever words they can use. Once we even had a competition to see who could come up with the cleverest-sounding word!

Good luck to you, it is a phase they all go through when they begin to socialise outside of the home - this too will pass.