Child swearing at school!!

[Scoobywho24]

I was called to speak to the teacher at the gate today when I picked up my son (6) from school. I was expecting something good as this morning I was spoken to at the gate about how well he was getting on and had been producing some amazing work. Anyway, to my horror the teacher told me that he had dropped something in class today and shouted ‘oh shit!!!’ He was really embarrassed apparently and apologised. But I am so surprised by this as we don’t swear infront of our children at all! I asked if he’d heard it from someone else and he said someone else says it in school. I feel like I’m over reacting by creating a post about this but I am concerned. This is my first born 😂

So long as he knows it is inappropriate in a lot of situations and some people might be offended, I think it's important to tell him cursing is "okay". Like, everyone does it.

Your son didn't say "shit" to be hurtful and spiteful to someone, he just said it as a natural reaction to the shock of dropping something. If you think he is emotionally developed enough to understand that it should be OK.

If anything I think your teacher was overreacting to bring it up given the context in which he swore, but I understand they have a job to do and duty of care to the other children.

My son was called a f×××ing c××× in yr 2. It happens all the time. He realised he was wrong as soo as he said he'll have been spoken to at the time, you've spoken to him. He won't do it again, don't worry x

I was phoned and told my 6 year old was usung a swear word. We don't swear but being the new child they didn't seem to buy it. Fast forward 4 weeks at parents evening and the blatent offender was there with his parents also swearing like troopers lol. You have talked to him it's not a big thing.

My 2 year old says shit lol I was mortified!! She says it in both contexts when she’s done one and when she drops something apparently we just have to ignore it and hope she stops but it’s awful I hate it! I don’t know where she’s got it from but it must be us!!

Oh my goodness how funny! Can't believe that a teacher needed to tell you that! As a first and probably only occurence just remark about it to child and let it go. Stop beating yourself up you are doing nothing wrong. (Speaking with 42 years experience in primary education)

That's it. He is destined to become a career criminal! Lol.
I don't know what you are concerned about, really. Children come across people in all sorts of places and hear all sorts of words. Are you telling me you never repeated something as a child? Because I definitely remember doing it, and, while we don't swear in front of the kids (and I don't really consider "shit" a swearword), we occasionally drop an f- or a c-bomb out of their earshot. And we are both professionals and certainly not some thugs. So there is nothing really to be concerned about.

I don’t think swearing is bad or wrong, but it’s certainly not appropriate for school. That being said, my eldest dropped the F-bomb at school once. But we say that swearing is reserved for situations in which there are “real bad guys” or if they are really badly hurt. I think making it something taboo makes them want to do it more, so we’re chilled about it, and if they do swear we just remind them that it’s only for extreme circumstances because some people get offended by those words and we don’t want to make people feel uncomfortable.

Largely it works too. My eldest only dropped that F-bomb once, and my youngest, who went through a swearing phase at home, just testing the boundaries, has never sworn at nursery.

I don’t think you need to worry!

Let go of your pearls and strap yourself in it’s going to be a bumpy ride 🤣🤣🤣

My best friend taught me the f work when I was 6. I thought it was cool so when we were in the Wendy house at break time, she knocked on the door and I shout F off. The dinner lady heard and marched me out of the Wendy house. She knew my grandmother and told me my gran would be very sad if she heard me using language like that! I was mortified. I still see her now -she is nearly 90 and we have a good laugh about it. This was in the days when staff dealt with things without telling parents!

Buckle up buttercup, wait till he gets to secondary! 😂

This happened to me last week - I work in the school too. He asked if he could ‘go for a p*ss’
I was again shocked because we never swear in front of them and even overhearing we would never and have never used it in the context of urinating (context of angry and drunk, maybe but only out of the way of their ears when in bed) so it couldn’t have been overheard by us.

he didn’t know what he’d said so I just ignored and moved on. Loads of kids do it, teacher is just telling you.
we get a lot of kids doing it all the time so they’re definitely using words they’re hearing at home but equally times where kids repeat things they hear in the street/a friend. I wouldn’t worry.

Is this a leafy suburban school? Reminds me when a child complained of someone using the "swear word" idiot when i was on placement (hahahaha).

If I rang parents every time a child ACCIDENTALLY swore I would never get off the phone!! It slipped out, he knows it was inappropriate, the end. Have a chat but don't stress.

Woops!!!

My DD never swears, but it's a miracle really because I have to admit i'm terrible in casual conversation with other adults it just comes out without me thinking about it 🙈

Kids are never going to not get exposed to cursing. I think teaching kids that swearing is not allowed in professional environments like school, work and teaching the context in that it's used in is the most important thing here rather than the fact that he actually cursed.

I know not everyone agrees, some may call me a snowflake etc and thats absolutely fine, but i just believe that banning something makes kids and teens so much more curious about it and that explaining context and situations it can be used in is so much better of a tool to control things like this.

When my daughter was in nursery she must have been 3 she shouted FFS because she got so frustrated 🤣I don’t care if mine swear IN THE HOUSE they are just words they know not to use them in school

I have a video of my toddler coming to me and saying mummy I’ve done a shit 🤣

My son is in year 6 and when coming in from football he asked if I’d ordered a McDonald’s whilst he was out (I’d forgotten to hide the wrappers), when I said yes he said ‘oh you lucky bastard’. 😂😂 there was about 7 seconds where we both looked at each other in awkward horror, him cause he thought he was gonna get a bollocking and me because I didn’t know how that just fell out of his mouth so casually 😂😂 .
we had a Frank and honest discussion and my ground rules were ‘I’m not stupid, I know you hear swear words from your peers and some adults around you, so don’t swear around adults, including family or teachers or me - your mother & don’t swear AT anyone Especially your peers or younger children you go to school with/play football with and never type any swears out on PlayStation/whatsapp etc’
I also said the F word was out of bounds and (perhaps ignorantly) don’t think he’s ever heard the C word.
I know your son is a lot younger than mine but if he’s embarrassed he said it the first place I don’t think you’ll have a potty mouth delinquent on your hands anytime soon. He’s apologised, the school repremaned him, you’ve talked to him, put the issue to bed. Just keep an eye on it and when he’s older on his friends over PlayStation etc (that’s where I hear a lot of my sons friends swear tbh)

Your child is learning the nuances of his language.
context, tone, vocabulary.
you should be pleased.
swearing are just words, teach him the time and place, it’s not a slippery slope to doom.

My kid is allowed to say it. I don't see it as a swear word.

I was raised to not swear etc and even in my late 30’s I have this filter which means it’s almost impossible for me to swear infront of my parents. They wouldn’t be best pleased.

Therefore this one caught the teacher off guard. I remember I was year 3, maybe year 4.

we learnt a song off my friends older sister. To this day I remember it. We were whisper singing it to each other and giggling, the teacher heard and asked us “what’s so funny? Want to say it to the whole class?”…so we did…it went like this…

”billy and bungle went to the jungle, having lots of fun. Billy got silly, stuck out his wlly and stuck it up bungles bm”

the whole class was laughing. The teacher was not.

I wonder how many ‘good’ children taught their parents that after school….

My dad got called in. He was so shocked I recalled he burst out laughing.

I am not a criminal or living on the wrong side of the tracks. One swear word is really not an issue.

I had a similar thing with my son saying f* at that age. I asked him if he knew it was a bad word and he said no. So I said to him he wouldn’t get into trouble, but now he did know it’s a bad word it’s a deferent situation and if I heard that he’d said it again there would be consequences. We never had the issue again.

I think a lot of kids will repeat a word without knowing not to..until told!
best one from one of mine was “just open the fucking door” ..I laughed and laughed and didn’t open the door until I could tell them you shouldn’t say that. another child’s fave for a wee was “oh fuck it”.
tonight I got asked if they could say “oh shit” and when I said no, they said is that just adult words…I quickly said yes and apologised for saying it as I shouldn’t either. They giggled and said it’s ok we all make mistakes 😂 (I had just dropped a plate of food everywhere when I said it)
teacher will have heard far worse…

I think the teacher should have just dealt with it. You don't need to be mortified, it happens. Just be grateful it wasn't a worse one!