How to stop DS's potty mouth?

[Bookworm715]

I will admit that sometimes I slip and say a bad word if I stub my toe or the dog pees in the house. I'm working hard to correct it and have been doing very well. However, between my occasional slip-up and the foul-mouthed people that we hear at the grocery store, etc., DS has picked up a couple of bad words.

I tried ignoring but it didn't work. Then I responded calmly that it made me sad when he talked that way and that we should speak kindly to the people around us. Also failed. He learned the F word from a moron at the grocery store that was using it as a noun, verb, adjective, etc. DS kept saying it and I got very frustrated and put him in time out. Now he knows it pushes a button and will say it when he's testing limits. I've been ignoring it but that doesn't seem to be working at all.

The only solution I've found is to correct him and give him other words to use- some like "jerk" or "darn" and some just silly nonsense words. It usually works if he's already said it but I'm desperate to stop him from saying it at all to begin with.

He's not quite 3 years old...any tips?

[happy1nluv]

I've got a 2 year old and a 4 year old and they both have potty mouths... they've learned that mom gets really frazzled when they start screaming "damnit" REALLY loudly! I haven't come up with anything great yet... but I'm looking.

I did try bribery which seems to work with the 4 year old ... I gave both boys 20 nickels in a special cup (made from a paper towel holder that i covered in construction paper and they decorated) and i made me one too. The boys each got their 20 nickels in their cups and mine was empty. I told them that every time they used a bad word, they'd have to take one of the nickels from their cups and put it in mine... and if they had their 20 nickels at the end of the week we'd go to target and they could pick out a new car... The 2 year old likes to give me his nickels but the 4 year old hasn't said one since (except a few times to tell me that he wouldn't say damnit anymore cause he wanted his car... i didnt make him give me a nickel for those but did explain that he couldn't use it that way either and that stopped after the 2nd or 3rd slip...) Problem with that is once he loses one, he's done and I can't think of what he can do to earn it back... and it really feels wrong to pay them to be good... but i spoke waaayyy before i thought on this one...

[mamazee]

Honestly, the only thing that worked here is for my dh and I to stop using those words. Modeling is going to be a stronger influence than anything else, so if you try to stop it some other way but you're still using them, you'll keep having problems.

I found, for me personally, that the problem wasn't that I was bothered by my dd using those words as much as I was embarrassed by her using them around other people because I felt it reflected poorly upon me. I tried to own that and not make her pay for that too.

[Rivka5]

When my just-turned four-year-old uses potty talk, I calmly tell her to go into the bathroom if she wants to say those words. She's at the age to think that talking about "poop" and "butts" is hilarious, and it helps to deprive her of an audience without totally forbidding the words. She can sing songs about poop all day long if she wants, but I don't want to hear them and I don't want to subject other people to them either.

[Bookworm715]

Originally Posted by happy1nluv

The 2 year old likes to give me his nickels...

The very frustrating part about dealing with 2 year olds...lol