Jennifer Pawloski works in television and film, so she makes it a point to know exactly what will be said next. But nothing could prepare her for the shocking line her first son Grey uttered at age 3 in front of family and friends at a quiet café.
“Oh, [word for poop that sounds much harsher than poop]!”
Pawloski tried not to panic, but the back of her neck still broke out in a hot sweat. Especially since she knew exactly where Grey picked up that bleep-worthy bit of dialogue.
“I’m probably more guilty than my husband,” Pawloski says. “I occasionally blurt out the more ‘frustrating’ word.”
Kids say the darndest #$%&!, alright. And they pick up those cuss words the same way they pick up the sniffles — by entering the outside world. But before you go wagging a holier-than-thou finger at The TV or The Web or The Pimply Kid by the seesaw, you might want to also point out a certain foul-mouth mommy or daddy in the mirror.
“For parents it’s important to consider how they communicate in their own household,” says Melissa Henson, director of communications and public education for the Parents Television Council. Henson says for all the salty language mass media shakes into our kids’ ears, kids with a cussing parent grow up to become a cussing parent – a self-perpetuating problem that cranks out another generation of potty mouths in Garanimals.
The last thing any parent wants is to hear her child sound like a mini Mel Gibson who recently grabbed headlines for recordings that sounded like the actor screaming profanities at his former girlfriend. So while coarser conversation in film, video games and the Internet does factor into what our children parrot, what children say (and shouldn’t say) begins at home. Here’s how to clean up your little one’s language without resorting to a bar of soap:
Set a cuss-free example. No expletive, indeed. Henson and other experts stress parents should refrain from using profanities because kids watch, learn and repeat. In other words, that golden rule about speaking the way you wish to be spoken to? Exactly, only minus the swear words.
Apologize when you do it. No matter how diligently you muzzle your swear words, you’re bound to let one loose in a moment of anger or excitement. Acknowledge that slip-of-the-tongue and use it as a teaching moment for your child.
“We should say, ‘Mom or Dad just said something bad’ and apologize. ‘I shouldn’t have said this,'” says GiGi Lewis, founding director of Club Etiquette in Houston. “I think it’s perfectly fine for them to see we make mistakes.”
Besides, children love to point out when grownups mess up. The positive teaching moment comes from taking responsibility for our gaffes.
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Via: Chron.com
