Your Kid's Potty Mouth

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

filed under: kid logic

Newsflash: Your kid curses like a sailor!

Mary Poppins: It was nice weather this week, so when you asked me to take your kids to the water park, I figured it was a pretty good deal. It was sunny, I was bringing along a friend because three toddlers at a water park is just too much for anyone, but then your daughter opened her mouth and let out a stream of bad words.

This was not just calling me stupid or getting angry for trying to change her out of her wet clothes. This was a full-blown yelling session from the mouth of your 4-year-old. She called me names I have not been called for years, and hearing them from a child about to enter kindergarten was really upsetting.

Here I am, standing in the wading pool, putting floaties on the twins, when all of a sudden I notice that your daughter has gotten into the pool fully dressed. In my attempt to pull off her dress so it can possibly dry by the time we have to leave, she tells me to "F off!" and calls me an "asshole." I'm stunned. I look around me thinking this must be a joke. I'm terribly embarrassed that I have brought a young child into a kid area and she is using this kind of language. Then your twins start to imitate her! Oh. My. God. I now have all parents in this wading pool shooting me daggers and I'm just speechless.

I decide that it is time to go home. This language is inappropriate and I refuse to listen to this coming from a 4-year-old. More curse words and hysterics ensue on our way back to the car and on the drive home. We get home and I explain to you as calmly as I can that your child has successfully used every curse word known to man. You sigh and shrug and say yes, we know it's a problem, but there is just really no solution. EXCUSE ME??? Are you INSANE?!!! You want your daughter to go to kindergarten next year talking like that? Your two babies who are just learning to talk are saying sh*t as one of their first words!

That is it, I cannot take it anymore. I do not listen to this kind of crap from other people and I will certainly not take it from a child whose parents decide it is something they will not deal with. I quit.

12 comments so far | Post a comment now >>

obviously it’s the parents fault on this one. and good for you for standing your ground and not taking it. it’s extremely inappropriate for the parents not to take action! i used to cuss like a sailor. then i had kids and i quit. it was easy because i didn’t want my kids repeating such vulgarities. shame on these parents.

- Cristina Mathers

Posted 03/18/09 11:56 AM

I think it is unacceptable to a young child to curse like that. I can’t stand to hear my two year old daughter say the word fart. I think it sounds terrible coming out of her mouth. I quickly correct her and tell her to say “excuse me” instead of “I farted”.

- Ady

Posted 03/18/09 11:59 AM

Oh this is definitely the parents’ fault. I had something happen, yesterday actually. We went to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream (they have Family Tuesday specials). I picked up my 3 year old daughter to look at the ice cream so she could tell me which flavor she wanted. When she saw the ice cream, she said, “oh wow, look at the stupid ice cream!”. STUPID ice cream??? WHAT!? So I immediately corrected her to say the yummy ice cream and she changed it. Holy crap! We have to watch everything we say. I try not to curse at ALL in front of her, I don’t even remember saying stupid in front of her.

- Jan

Posted 03/18/09 03:07 PM

It doesn’t surprise me anymore what comes out of the mouths these days from young kids even as young as 4, but it is the parents’ responsibility to put an end to it. It’s just not acceptable AND they can and do have control of it. There’s no excuse. You are still the parent and you have the control.

- Sophia

Posted 03/18/09 03:08 PM

How do you discipline a potty mouth? Not preventative, but once a young child is already using foul language.

- Amanda

Posted 03/18/09 03:10 PM

Sounds like swearing is just one symptom of a larger problem. If I was the mom, I’d probably shrug it off too, since the blatant disrespect is a much more serious issue. Seems like the mom has already lifted the white flag. I hope they are prepared to be talking to a teacher a LOT next year.

- jenny

Posted 03/18/09 03:15 PM

Amanda, that’s a great question. My kids never started cussing so they’ve never needed to stop, a word or two would slip out but we would suggest a better way to express their frustration, but it was no big deal because we’ve never had the disrespect issue. Once its at the point where they are using it to control mom and dad how do the parents establish order again?

- Wendy

Posted 03/18/09 03:26 PM

To many parents think it is cute and funny when there kids cuss people out. They laugh and tape it and put it on utube so kids think they are doing a good thing. I don’t know how teachers are ever gonna deal with the cussing when parents react that way.

- Mandy

Posted 03/18/09 03:35 PM

I realize your intentions were right, but see it from the child’s perspective. You tried to UNDRESS her publically. Maybe you are one of a parade of people who care for her, but not someone she feels safe with. In the event of an “unsafe” adult trying to remove clothes the best defence a small child would have would be to call a lot of verbal attention to the situation. Seems your charge was very effective at that.

- FlipSide

Posted 03/18/09 04:35 PM

I agree with most of the commenters here, it is the fault of the parents, they use it in front of the kids, so the kids don’t know any better. I don’t cuss in front of my kids, but I used to call other drivers idiots, until my daughter, 2 at the time, started doing it, that’s when I realized where she got it, oops. When we used to cuss, we got our mouths washed out with soap.

- K&C's mom

Posted 03/18/09 04:42 PM

A few days ago my not even two yet son pushed one of his hot wheels under the stove and said “uh-oh.” Well, this is getting really old because I’am constantly fishing out hot wheels so I said “it’s gone.” Promplty my toddler looked at me and said “damn”. I was shocked I’m very careful not to cuss around my kids. But I’ve been paying close attention and my husband actually says it a-lot I just never noticed. I told my husband he needs to be carefull about not saying bad words in front of our toddler but now my Son says “damn bad word”.

- mercaties

Posted 03/19/09 03:03 AM

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- Yrljotik

Posted 06/25/09 12:59 AM