A lot of kids are learning curse words and swear words from the mainstream media, their peers and seniors at school, and even from their parents. Some studies reveal that over 50% of all parents say their child swore before them. Using expletives is pretty appealing to kids, who often use them to surprise their parents and friends. Sadly, your child tends to mouth these colorful expletives at the worst possible moments, which could be family dinners, birthday parties, etc. To avoid the embarrassment, it’s vital to teach your child the appropriate vocabulary to use.

If you’re struggling to make your child use more age-appropriate words, the following tips can help reduce your kid’s swearing tendency. 

Control Your Own Reactions 

When your child used a curse word for the first time, were you tempted to laugh it off, or did you threaten the kid to give their foul mouth a good soap rinse? You may not know this, but displaying an extreme reaction could persuade your child to persist with this nasty habit. 

Since the use of swear or curse words by your kids is a serious issue that needs to be handled immediately, you shouldn’t ignore it. You can simply let your child know that the word used wasn’t an acceptable one. Older kids could be explained peacefully why they should refrain from using such “foul” words. For the first few instances, correcting their words verbally and quickly could be all parents need to do to control their kid’s swearing habit. 

Find Creative New Words As Replacements  

You should work with your child to find new and innovative phrases that can be used in place of swear words. Uttering such random words (like the names of various cookies, say Snickerdoodle) out loud could be a cool way for kids to express their emotions without swearing.

This opens a new avenue of communication for your child to vent their frustration and paves the way to striking a childish yet strong bond.

Control What Your Child Hears

You need to control the language your child hears. If they pick up swear words from you or a movie the family watched recently, you may feel guilty of correcting their swearing habit. An easy and fun solution could be setting up the swear jar where the speaker of a swear word puts money every time they utter it. Since kids love reproaching parents, they’ll enthusiastically remind you to add a dollar to the jar whenever you curse. The money thus accumulated could be used for a family trip once the jar is full.

In case your child picks profanities from the media, especially movies and television shows, you should change the channels when such shows are aired. Since swear words in movies and TV shows are often used to add a dash of humor, children find it funny to imitate them. You can curb this habit by restricting their access to shows with inappropriate language.

Conclusion

Stopping your kid’s swearing doesn’t need to be highly complicated. Simply implement some of these tips shared above to control this problem behavior before it grows bigger into a menace.