Little Girl at almost age 3 and is just starting to form sentences and phrases. Big Girl at age 5 has a good grasp of the English language including many popular slang words and phrases. When I hear Big Girl use slang phrases in correct context with emotion, I often wonder where she gets them? Do you know where? The answer is obvious.
From me. Most of the time. But not always.
Recently Big Girl’s response to any request I made that she either didn’t want to do or like to do was “Whatever Mom!” It was irritating. I cringed every time she said it. And I thought, “Where did she get that?” And then I heard myself say it. With the same tone and in similar context. I am working to rid my response of, “Whatever!” and sure enough, the times I hear it from her have decreased.
Then there are the rouge phrases that Big Girl picks up from television cartoons. One day her response to me was, “Duh! Boring!”. I KNOW I don’t say that! Turns out that it is a favorite phrase of a little pink pony.
The use of slang words is pretty benign. And more likely than not, as time passes the use and choice of slang words will grow and evolve with my girls. It becomes a problem when the slang word repeated is one deemed a “bad” word.
I learned that I lived with parrots in the house the day I became frustrated. I mean on fire angry. And used a very naughty word in the English language (I will omit it here but it rhymes with “duck”). Little girl repeated immediately! My husband glared at me! The moment passed and we moved on with our day.
I thought she had forgotten about it until I heard her say it months later in the exact same scenario that I used it. And she said it again and again! I speed dialed a wise friend who works with children to determine how to correct the damage I had done. Her advice: find a replacement word or phrase. And when a frustrating scenario arises, use the replacement word or phrase with gusto. So I have been walking around saying “darn it” every time I stub my toe or drop my fork. It has worked! I got Little Girls attention. Now I hear her say it. And best of all, I haven’t heard any words that rhyme with “duck” from Little Girl since.
Do you use slang words and allow your child/children to do the same? How to do encourage your child/children to speak properly in your language?
Have your little children ever repeated “bad” words that they heard you or someone else say? And what did you do to prevent it from happening again?
This has been an original post to World Moms Blog by Angela Y of San Francisco, California.
Photo credit to mdany who holds a Creative Commons attribution license.
LOL! Yes, I bet ALL parents fall into that trap at least once before they learn! 🙂
My hubby uses rather unique expressions even now (despite the fact that our kids are already 20 and 17 years old respectively!) Here are 3 of his more common expressions:
“Oh, Flowers!”, “You son of a seafaring cockroach!” and “Flowers and Kites!” 🙂
Oh… I do,too, have a parrot, just one, so far… 😉
And just like you, many times I was surprised by my older saying something, just to discover lately that it is me who she learned it from…
That is a really good tip, Angela! I have parrots in the house, too! lol!
Jen 🙂
Yes…parrots! I have really worked on cleaning up my language since having kids. So far, so good on the swear words. But I have to watch myself with using sarcasm with my 7 year old when I’m really frustrated with his actions. It’s counter productive and doesn’t actually teach him anything.
I was laughing out loud as I read this because I too have parrots in the house. The funny thing is that they repeat phrases or expressions I say – and my youngest has made me realize that I say “Actually…..” quite a lot 🙂
Yes, we have parrots. Yes, they do repeat everything. Yes, we have learned the hard way. :/
This is so funny and so true Angela! We use “stupid” instead of the harsher words that are swimming through our heads at the moment, and when my son started repeating that things were stupid we realized we had to stop. He has now (at 6 years old) appointed himself the “stupid police” and reprimands us when we accidentally slip! :). The problem now though, is that our 2year old is calling everyone and everything stupid. So now we have to teach her that it is not so nice to say…. It feels like it is so much more difficult the second time around. LOL!