Swearing

I came across an entry in Rich Burridge’s blog about dealing with kids and swearing and it reminded me of the first time we had to deal with that issue…

Britton was about 3 or 4 and Tiff had knocked her knee into a table as she walked by and, in her surprise and pain, she exclaimed “shit!”. Britton heard it of course, picked up on it immediately and used it the very next time she became frustrated with a toy’s malfunction. I ended up sitting down with her and explaining that there are some words that simply aren’t appropriate for children to use. Now she did use the word a few times after that, but she knew as soon as she said it that she had crossed a line and didn’t really complain about the resulting time out. Even now (at 7), when she recounts stories that include some of those words, she will replace them with ‘a word I’m not supposed to say’…