Hey working mommies… guess what O’s new favorite phrase is? Damn it. Or Dammit. Or however you choose to spell it.
He even uses it correctly–when he gets frustrated, out it comes. “DAMMit!”–emphasizing the “Damn/m” part every time.
I’m sure this has put us into the most fantastic light with the people of his new CATHOLIC day care center. My saving grace? At least he doesn’t put the word “God” in front of it.
I’m 98% positive he picked up this little gem from his dad, because well, I don’t tend to say that word. I don’t blame him though, because O is a complete little imitator anymore. You say or do it, he’s going to do or say it right behind you. And O picked up a different, kinda way worse, swear word from me (rhymes with “puck”). As soon as I heard him repeat it, I stopped in my tracks. I didn’t make a big deal out of him saying it–and I never said it again don’t say it around him. He promptly forgot about it, and I haven’t heard him utter the word again.
This”dammit!” word isn’t going away, though. I’m not sure what to do. The “ignore it and act like it’s not a big deal” way of thought isn’t working this time. It really is his “go-to” word when something doesn’t go his way.
Help?
You may also like
22 thoughts on “The D-Word”
Leave a Reply
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Well shit, Tela I don’t have a damn clue.
Sorry – if you get any hints, pass them along. P has not let go of the f-bomb as quickly.
In her defense though, the f word does relieve so much stress, it is like a little zoloft pill, always at my disposal. No prescription needed.
I have a four year old who says, “poo butt” “butt crack” and “stupid” along with “damn it all to hell”. She knows these are things she can’t say at school but I allow them at home because they aren’t really hurting anyone if they aren’t expressed in anger. “Stupid” is the exception. She’s not allowed to call a person stupid. Otherwise, I don’t make too big an issue out of it. These things do pass in time. They lose their power and luster and kids move on when they don’t get the reaction they’re hoping for.
By “anger” I mean directed at a person – said to hurt their feelings. Just randomly singing about poo butts, well, I can’t help but find that funny.
Kids have an uncanny way of picking up the naughty words, don’t they? The other day Aidan was singing the alphabet song and then I listened closely as he kept going “A-S-S, A-S-S, A-S-S, A-S-S.” I could tell he knew exactly what he was spelling!
This cracks me up because this just happened last week. My 5 yo dd was picking through her rice at dinner and asked, “what the hell is in this rice?!?”
I don’t think we/they can avoid it. We’re all human. I think you’re right, just try not to repeat it in their company as best you can.
Oh goodness. I’m sure this dilemma is coming my way, and soon.
I was standing in line at Summer Fair last Friday, and this woman was attempting to turn into the lane blocked by all of us standing in line. She just kept inching her car forward. I said something to a woman in front of me, who didn’t seem to see this car. I said, “this woman apparently wants through here”. My son, in a VERY loud voice, said, “IDIOT”. LOLOL.
Perfect context, perfect application. That is what separates a good-bad word from a simple bad word.
He will grow past this. Maybe onto other words, but, we all need to build our vocabularies.
A suggestion: try correcting him him with something that SOUNDS the same as though he has simply made a mistake. It doesn’t even have to be a real word or logical phrase. For example: “Ooooh, don’t you mean STAMP it?” or “oooh! You mean to say AW BELLS!, don’t you?”
Another thing I do is just ask them “Hey. What does that word mean?” and if they can’t describe it, I say “I don’t understand THAT word, so let’s say XXXXXXX instead because I *do* understand THAT one” (We usually say OH SHRIMPHEADS or PICKLESNOT!! ….something silly like that.)
It worked for me. Though, you do have to watch what you say and this works for little ones. The older ones will know better and then you just have to lay the law down that it’s okay to find expressions that are expressive, but we need to find suitable ones that are respectful to everyone.
Ah yes. I knew it was time for the language police when Henry (age 3 at the time)whacked his head on his bed and declared “That f—ing hurt!”. We cleaned up our own language and he hasn’t said it since, but he can let fly with some pretty colorful things by virtue of hearing them once or twice. My latest favorite is him asking me to play “Talk Dirty to Me”, as it is a song on Guitar Hero and he can read now. I can’t wait until his teacher hears that one. Social Services here we come!
I’d take dammit over “what the…” thank fully he leaves it at 2 words but now his 2 year old brother is saying it. He gets it from school 🙂
Hi.. new to the blog. “Where is my g-damn green crayon?” was a phrase that stopped me in my tracks a few moons ago. Mommy of the year.
I had a feeling I wasn’t alone, and these stories are cracking me up.
Jennilea–Awesome tips to try! Now what rhymes with dammit… “slam it?” I gotta work on that…
Amy–Talk Dirty to Me? Really? Hilarious.
I gotta say, I’m a little bit more aware and worried about it all because his new daycare is Catholic. Now, I know, Catholic people can swear like sailors… but he’s with nuns for goodness sake. They intimidate me. 🙂
What the french, toast? I hope you’re not directing that remark to me!
Don’t worry, the nuns are probably hard of hearing.
When Jude was 2, he picked up the word crap from me (which isn’t bad out of my mouth but out of his.. really). So I told him not to say it anymore b/c he kept using it repeatedly. One day I told him, you are going to time out for saying that and you need to stop it. He looked at me and said, “Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap.” I will never forget it.. utter definance (kind of funny… i had to leave the room b/c i was laughing). So then I put soap on his tongue and it cured it. : )
I’m just waiting for something like that to come out of my 2 yr old’s mouth! When my nephew was 2 he picked up the f-bomb somewhere and knew he got a lot of attention when he said it (negative of course). So I told him that was a bad word but if he said chicken when he got mad that was even worse. He went around screaming chicken for months and dropped the f-bomb that day.
A child screaming chicken and laughing hysterically can be a little annoying, but less offensive for the nuns.
Trust me the nuns are the worse potty mouths – don’t let them fool ya.
Remember those ones in Indiana that weren’t allowed to vote – you should have heard the poetry coming out of their mouthes.
Apparently, I don’t know how to spell the plural of mouth. I thought you added -es to -th words?
Carry on
Just the other day Alex (almost 5) said “What is all this crap?” DH and I both died, and couldn’t say a word since it’s obvious where he gets it from. When he was a baby, I was convinced his first words were going to be “Damnit, Domino!” (Domino being our dog).
We altered our language to use various forms of the word – carp for crap was a favorite. We actually were both good about curtailing use of the f- and s-bombs around him. Maybe you could try to use darn instead of damn?
My 19 month old little girl started imitating our 70 year old Irish Catholic babysitter when she talked on the phone to her grandkids. “OH MY GOD!” is what’s stuck. She says it all the time, especially when she plays with the phone. I stared correcting her by saying “oh my goodness,” or “oh my heavens.” She just parrots back to me “Oh My God!” My husband said ‘shit’ last night, and she repeated it immediately. It’s time to watch our mouths, and I’m glad to know I’m not alone!
Even if you never curse in front of them, kids will find something offensive to say.
My 3 year old daughter threw a softball and hit my husband in a sensitive spot. He dropped to the ground and, without thinking, said to me, “My balls, my balls.” Ever since ( and this was a few months ago) my daughter says this anytime she gets a boo-boo.
All these stories are hilarious. Maybe WMAG should have a “Baby Said a Bad, Bad, Thing” contest.
Hmmmm…
I just re-read my post and I had about a bazillion “quoted words” in there. Sorry about that.
In other news, O has started using “CRAP!” quite often. And always in the right context. Where does he get these things, seriously?
My 3 yr old daughter loves to say new words she learns … and I mean all of them… My technique (which is working so far) is to tell her that it is a “not nice” word and trade her for a new one … my favorite so far has been “Stupendous Coconut” in exchange for the oh so lovely “Stupid B*tch” she picked up from one of the boys at day care. Love being a parent!
A few of the other trade words I have come up with … Atchafalaya, Poughkeepsie, Hoboken … any word that feels good rolling off the tongue seems to work.