Not swearing infront of the kids....

[????]

...it's difficulat aint it

[sillywoman]

Gets harder as they get older. I feel I've rediscovered the vicarious thrill of bad language after the 'dry' years that small children bring. It's so bad, but feels so good. Sensibleman raises his eyebrows much more frequently that he ever used to - I ignore him of course, but it puts me on very dodgy ground when it comes to disciplining my children about their language (not something I have to do too frequently I hasten to add).

:-$

[????]

The middle quidlet (3 years) told me the other day, "Oh my god, I've just done a fucking big poo"...a nice combination of swearing and blasphemy. I blame the mothers.

[candj]

My children only swear when they're in their carseats.

[Moos]

That would suggest that Mr. candj, like Mr. Moos, tends to lapse most often when driving.

Moosling, aged 2, was discovered sitting on the loo muttering to himself "Fcuking sake. Fcuking sake. Daddy say it". Not that funny at the time, but fortunately seems to have been forgotten!

[snowboarder]

My sister, aged around 2, used to march around saying 'oh DOD! Oh - no say DOD, no say that!'. Very self aware...

[ratty]

My 3 year old called me "f**king daddy" the other day. Wonder where he got that from?

He also used to say "Oh God out loud". Amused me!

[Pickle]

I'm from a country where swearing (albeit in a mild form) is commonplace on TV/radio etc (I'm sure the kiwi "bugger" ad made it onto the news here?!"). I quickly had to adjust my swearing ways when I moved to the UK 10 years ago, but do find myself slipping every now and then.

My parents think it's hilarious that I'm now "posh" in that I will say "goodness" or "gosh" instead of the kiwi recognised "bl**dy hell" when the kids are around :)

The car is the worst situation for me, I do tend to be quite verbal about other people's driving and forget the kids are there. After tooting my horn at an inept driver a week or so ago my son (4) said "is that man an effing idiot Mummy?". Oops.

[charlottep]

Yes, we've had a couple of "f*%k offs" in the car from my almost 3 year old. A couple of weeks ago my husband was taken aside at our boys nursery, the teacher said she had concerns over his language, hubbie was gearing up for something pretty hardcore and then the teacher said he'd been calling another child a nincumpoop. What a relief. Not that we condone any sort of name calling or anything.

[candj]

Moos Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> That would suggest that Mr. candj, like Mr. Moos,

> tends to lapse most often when driving.

And therein lies the problem! My children have learned to shout at cars, cyclists and pedestrians as well as tell me to slow down because I'm driving too fast.

Edited for typo-bloody iPhone!

[Moos]

Ha! Me too. If I have to break sharply, an officious little voice from the back will pipe up "That was too fast, Mummy".

Grrr. Particularly galling when true..

[Belle]

This is fast becoming an embarrassing problem with out two year old, esp as he recently started at nursery. He mostly says s*** when he hurts himself, a pretty clear case of imitation so we're trying to think of plausible substitutes. The other day he said f*** right after his dad exclaimed over the dishwasher (!), no repeats so far tho. I used to be v liberal about it but now it's actually happening feel a bit bad. On the plus side he affectionately calls us both 'babe' which is quite funny.

[ClareC]

My 3 year old nephew looking for his 5 year old brother shouted out "George........ George...... Where are you, you little g*t"

No repeats of that one thankfully!!

My friend's 3 year old told a nurse at GOSH who was trying to take blood from her to "get off my bl**dy arm" !

My daughter is nearly 14 months and I am desperately trying to not say anything I shouldnt..... It is hard!!

[IrishDancer]

My 3.5 year old think's Jesus Christ is a great word because the priest says it!!She has also said for F sake!I have decided to ignore her and so far no swearing for 2 weeks.Yipee

[karter]

How about swearing in a different language?:)):))

[nunheadmum]

My youngest at between 2.25 and 2.5yrs was regularly to be heard, whenever she tried doing something and it didn't work, saying 'oh, F**k it!'. (Full marks I have to say for appropriate usage!)

Thankfully that phrasing is the one used by daddy, so I was able to blame it all on him!!

[redjam]

I remember when my eldest was around three, she stubbed her toe and squealed 'Goddammit!' in her sweet little girly voice. Unfortunately I was laughing too hard to tell her off, though she's never repeated it. Now I sometimes hear her say 'Oh ssshhhi' when she hurts herself (she's obviously heard me say something but I've managed to swallow the ending).

Anyway, good thread - youse lot are making me feel better about being a foul-mouthed slatternly mother.

[Saila]

I was speaking to my mum about this thread today, she said that once my brother came back from nursery saying

"Goodness gracious"....

she was too embarrassed to find out what he had said (repeated) in order for him to be taught this phrase...

[Yak]

Our good friend's kids think the F word is solely to be used to describe dropping a large pan of spaghetti over the kitchen floor.

[Mook]

Whilst walking through the park coming home from school with the kids I look after, the eldest boy (13) dropped his blazer in a puddle, his response was Oh F*^k. His little brother (3) who was walking next to him then decided to shout Oh F*^k all over the park. Luckily the 13 year old seemed quite embarrassed by his little brother's colourful language and he did tone it down in front of his brother and sister after that. Was a ground swallowing moment though.

[ryedalema]

Like Pickle my OH is Antipodean and swearing is second nature to him. My eldest daughter sat through a meal time at the weekend repeatedly muttering 'Oh my gawd...for crying out loud'.

Snot is also called boogers in our house, so we regularly hear 'I'm boogered....I'm boogered'.

Trouble is I LOVE swearing - must be me trying to break free from pc-worthy jobs where everything is a sin. Now madam is saying 'Oh my giddy aunt'. She won't get ribbed when we move to Aus - much!!>:D<

[Moi23]

Oh no.... I've managed to just about curve my horrendous swearing (which regularly gets repeated by my 4 year old) and replaced it with 'Oh my god', 'Good gracious', 'Oh lord', 'Blimey', 'Sugar', 'Fiddlesticks', and many more. Are any of these bad too? I guess I'm not religious so wasn't bothered about blasphemy. Trouble is, I too love to swear. It's so satisfying.

[BB100]

As a child of two compulsive swearing parents I found the use of explitives can be the bridge to domestic violence. So I don't swear and (almost) never have. As a result, my children don't swear either (as far as I know) and we have a very peaceful household. Even shut-up is a swear word in our house.

[Otta]

Not swearing, but made me laugh.

Yesterday, I picked up my daughter (nearly 2), and she was kicking her legs, and caught me right where it hurts. My wife saw the look on my face, and asked if I was okay. I replied that the little one had kicked me in the balls. Little one then started shouting "KICK IN BALLS!". :-$

[EDmummy]

Another Antipodean but thankfully curbed my natural Australian vernacular before the kids arrived but cannot seem to get rid of 'bugger' which I have been heard saying at the top of my voice in Sainsburys. Oldest called his little brother a 'bitch' the other day, a word he has picked up in the playground, but did not manage to correct him to let him know about it's inappropriate use on a male (for fear he will use it on the girls at school). When I was little my brother used to call me a 'female dog' instead of a 'bitch'.

Instead of 'oh my God', kids seem to say 'oh my days' which I think is a very South London thing (could be wrong).