Toddler swearing

[MrsDustyBusty]

My toddler swore today. I think the only place she can have picked this up is nursery - my husband and I don't swear even when she's not around, even before we had her (we're quite prissy, I suppose). Other than nursery, she doesn't regularly mix with people other than her relations who are all of the same mindset as us. It was in context so I don't think it was trying out new sounds.

How can I raise this with the nursery? I'd like to know how they deal with it (so that we can use the same strategy at home) and also let them know that we're not fans.

Well I wouldn't go in all prissy and guns blazing because you can't be sure your dd has heard it at nursery and it's unlikely to be a staff member. Kids are amazing at only hearing things once and repeating it so she could have heard it anywhere.

She may have heard it from another child at nursery in which case the nursery may tell them not to use words like that. The more attention you make to swearing, especially from a toddler the more likely they are to do it.

We deal with it at nursery by not dealing with it
We ignore it and don't make a fuss because once cjildrrm know a word is banned they will keep using it
If we hear a child swearing I would mention it to the parent but I can't tell them to stop their child swearing or to stop swearing themselves
It's only words

What word was it? It could have been from another child at nursery or it could have been from the supermarket, park or somewhere else so I would mention it to nursery but no go in all guns blazing.

She dropped something and said "oh fuck". I think this sounds more like something an adult might say than a child but I can't really know.

Obviously I don't want to go accusing anyone of anything because there's no way for me to prove where it's coming from but I know it's not home.

I didn't say anything to her because she couldn't possibly understand at 20 months and I suspect the conversation would have ended up reinforcing the word.

She could easily hear that on the street, on the bus, in a cafe. Much more likely than a nursery nurse saying fuck at work

It does sound like something an adult might say, but then a child hears it and repeats it and another child hears it from that child and so on - so there really is no way of knowing the origin. I would just ignore it. Children like nothing better than a reaction.

Yes you should raise it with the nursery if it's language that's not used in the house.

Agree what has been said about reinforcing behaviour: one day DC stood up, looked very serious as she wagged her finger at us and said "shut up". She had no idea what it meant and it didn't help that we burst into laughter.

It can only have come from nursery but is likely to have been one of the other children.

Yeah, that's my feeling too. I am reluctant to speak to them because I know it's a minor issue and probably based on our hangups at home than a real thing. Also, she's extremely happy there. The staff are really loving and kind, they're very flexible and I really have no other issue of any kind. So I don't want to upset anyone or get a perfectly lovely person who has an occasional slip into trouble.

But I also don't think that I want my daughter picking up that kind of language so young.