Bad Language or Swearing

[MumOf2]

Help! My 3 year old dd has started to swear. She has a selection from 'Sh-t', 'fu-k it', and 'bollo-'. I am shocked - firstly I don't know where she is hearing this as myself or her dad don't swear a lot and would be very careful in front of her. Also, she knows exactly when to say the various curses - that is even more scary to us! Last week her granddad was tickling her and she told him to 'fu...ing' stop - not in a harsh way, she was laughing hard when she said it. She also commented out very loudly in our local shop the word 'boll-x' - I nearly passed out! If I give out to her she doesn't seem to take any notice. Sometimes it is very funny and it is hard to keep in the laughing but we really have to sort this out soon. She is in a creche but I don't want to talk to them about it in case they think she is a little monster. Any advice and help would be appreciated

[Martina]

Children of this age often use bad words and it can be quite embarrassing for parents. However, rest assurred that you are not alone and many parents experience this phase. The best advice I can suggest is:

Try not to react when your child says a bad word - this is giving attention to the word and it is best ignored
Don't scold the child - again, this is giving attention
If you must say something, then perhaps say something like "I don't like when you say that word - lets pick a different word to use"
Make sure that no-one gives the child any reaction when they use the word(s)
Make sure that older children are not encouraging the toddler to use the word as a bit of fun
Talk to the creche and ask them to keep an eye/ear out to the children in your child's group to discourage bad language

Believe me, the less attention you pay to this problem, the sooner it will fade out and your child will stop using this type of language.

Let us know how this goes