How do I approach conversations such as this with my just turned 6 year old?
for the last couple of days he’s been coming home from school telling me, so and so thought I was swearing today/so and so said I swore (finger gestures). He knows which finger gestures are swearing (me and his dad do not use them) so when he has said this I’ve asked why would they think that/what were you doing with your hands? He has said things like showing them my sharpest nail or something else unnecessary that could be true or untrue. My advice has been not to put his fingers in any gesture that might be misconstrued for swearing so if showing fingernails for example, just hold all fingers up together rather than one or two. He says things like he just can’t help it, he forgets etc etc. I have told him the consequence of swearing will be that he will get in trouble with school and I do genuinely think he doesn’t want this to happen. But what else do I say to him? To me (as an adult with self control) I feel at 6 he should be able to just simply not do things with his hands that might appear to be swearing. Am I expecting too much? I actually feel the root issue is more the lack of control he seems to have within himself as this is an example from this week but we have had similar with things such as shouting out in class, making silly noises, saying swear words. It’s like he finds something he shouldn’t do and then can’t stop himself from doing it over and over. We don’t make a massive deal out of things and try not to draw attention to them. We make sure we discuss things calmly but make it clear there are consequences particularly for things like swearing, What else can I do? Is this normal 6yo behaviour?