Help! My son won’t stop swearing
My Sons becoming a POTTY MOUTH
My 11-year-old son has always been so polite and well-mannered, in fact a little too polite. Adults & the elderly especially always appreciated his manners whilst children of his own age found him a little different as he was constantly saying ‘Pardon’ and ‘Excuse me’ and used very grand and elaborate words in a lovely quite posh speaking voice .
I often heard him over Skype to his friends and was very proud of how often he said ‘Pardon’ instead of ‘What’, although his older brother did tease him for how polite he was and was caught often telling him to tone it down.
Now In the last couple of months something has happened my polite well-mannered son has turned into a ‘potty mouthed’ young man.
Phrases such as ‘hell no’, Mother Fluffer ( don’t panic I said Fluffer ) yet we all know what he is referring to and worse still so does he.Another one of his close to the bone phrases is ‘Duck You’ and I will let you decide what he is referring to there!
I could go on and on, sometimes he just shocks us all and swears like a trooper and other times uses his own made up versions and argues he isn’t actually saying a swear word.
Is this new-found vocabulary of his purely to shock us, because he is growing up and testing the water or can I partially blame this on influences from friends and YouTube?
When I hear him cursing sometimes and I know this is wrong instead of disciplining him I have to stop myself from laughing, I must state this is just when he is saying the milder words, for example ‘Hell yeah’ and ‘bloody hell’. This is because he never says it in anger and the way he says these phrases are in a comical manner.
I am putting myself out there to ask for help and advice from parents who may be facing the same problems, have you ever gone through a similar phase with your children?
My son is 13 and sounds very similar to yours. He has the sense at the moment to swear just out of ear shot. My 2 year old on the other hand, is terrible! He announces to visitors “I’m going to say *uck” This always leaves people a little gobsmacked and unsure how to respond. I tended to ignore it and he has given it up now as luckily the shock value wore off quickly!
Good luck and I hope it calms down for you xx
My advice would be to just ignore it. My 3 year old said ‘buddy hell’ the other day when something she was doing went wrong. We all laughed so now she won’t stop saying it. I think if they get a reaction it makes it worse. Swearing is really just another form of expression and personality so like it or not, it’s part of the growing up. As long as they are not hurting anyone with it I don’t think its a big deal. What do you shout when you stub your toe?
Btw, found you on #pocolo
Hi Rachel, I can remember going through a similar stage myself at about that age. I can actually remember thinking it made me sound very grown up indeed! My two boys are still babies so we haven’t had to worry about anything like this yet. If you find a solution, let me know. x
Oh my gosh, I don’t know what to say really, I’m so sorry. I dread this happening with Grace to be honest and we have tried to explain with the swear words that she does know that she shouldn’t use them. But is she is 6 at the moment. I hope someone can advise you what to do. Thank you for linking to PoCoLo x
My son hasn’t said his first word yet, let alone any swear words….but after working in daycares for years I can give you a few suggestions. The first one is to sit him down one evening and ask him why he’s started swearing and if there’s anything he would like to tell you about. Often when kids suddenly change behaviour it’s because they don’t know how else to express themselves. The second thing is to tell him that these words are not appropriate to use and that you don’t want to hear them. You have two options at that point: institute a recurring punishment for swearing (a swear jar, loss of privilege etc.) every time he is caught swearing, or the exact opposite tactic to ignore it completely and not give him any attention for it. Once the novelty has worn off and he’s not getting any reaction from it anymore, it’ll likely taper off on its own.
In any case, good luck!!
I’ve got it all to come.
My husband swears like a trooper and since watching Harry Potter Emmy now says…”Mummy, can I say Bloody Hell?” Because Ron does. ..she is only 3 :/
I must say they are so funny the way they ask before swearing, Jake knows my husband hates it but sees how far he can push him. Problem is you can’t help but laugh when they seem so innocent, I bet Emmy makes you laugh when she does it, I suppose its part of growing up.