by Bridgett Kelly

Created on: April 16, 2009   Last Updated: April 18, 2009

Oops! I just said the "S" word and my three year old just repeated it! As parents we are still human and last time I looked humans still make mistakes. No we are not perfect but we should learn to watch what we say and do around our little ones. Young children are like sponges,they soak up everything and learn very quick paces. It is not unusual to hear your child say an ugly word after they hear you say it.

It made my jaw fall to the floor when I heard my three year old tell my husband that "mommy is bitchy today." I almost died. He had heard my husband say out loud to himself. Children do not realize that they are saying a bad word. children simply imitate what we do because they want to be like us. It is our actions that our children want to mock, and boy do they ever! I do not think that as parents we set out to have our children develop potty mouth, but we also sometimes do not realize what we say until little Mary says it at the family reunion. Opps. Umm. Yea.

The worst thing to do is to punish our kids for saying or doing something that we taught them to say or do. After all they get it from us. We slip up, it is life. We can simply express that we are sorry for using the ugly word or phrase and explain to our child why it is ugly and why he or she should not use it. Of course explaining to the child for the appropriate age.

We slip up and use profanity around our kids when we get aggravated or angry. These kids pick up on this and relate the language to the mood, meaning that if they get angry or frustrated then watch out, here comes the potty mouth. Do not worry, it does not make you a bad parent if you slip up in front of your child. We just have to be more careful and train ourselves to not use profanity at all. It is hard sometimes and it just comes out.

Even though children pick up on our language and behaviors we can still teach them not to do it and why. Try not to use profanity constantly. If you slip up just once or twice then it is possible that it will never get in the child's mind to say it. But a constant everyday date with ugly language can result in a child with a mouth that will make you blush!

My son has picked up a couple of words and my husband and I have gotton to where we just have to watch what we say. We are human just like anyone else and as humans we make mistakes. Even though a young child can soak up your bad language and behaviors that go along with it, we as parents can still explain to them why it is not a good way to talk or behave.

If you slip up, do not worry, make sure that if your child hears you say it, make sure your child also hears you say "I am sorry for using that bad word, I should not talk like that" or a similar phrase so that they can see it is not only not okay for them that it is not okay for you too.

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