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My Child Uses Dirty Words It isn't funny Shyama Dalal was horrified when her five-year-old son, Vinay, called her a b----- in the middle of a routine argument. She says, "I was so shocked and angry. I gave him a good spanking. He better not speak to me like that again." When one thinks of children, one
thinks of fairytales, sugar candy sweetness and innocence. When faced with
a child spewing choice abuses, people generally have one of two reactions.
While parents take a step back and think - "Did I really hear what
I did?", other people might actually find the incongruity funny.
The parrot instinct The fact is that it is fairly common
for children between the age of two-and-a-half and five to use swear words.
In the course of the development of their language skills, children have
a tendency to repeat what they hear. If you've cursed somebody over the
phone when your child was in earshot, you shouldn't be surprised if you
hear your child repeating the same choice words in the near future.
Potty talk Toilet-training time often sees a
sudden surge in "potty talk." Suddenly your child finds it very entertaining
to say things like, "I'll flush you down the pot." They find endless amusement
in indulging in gross talk about their bowel movement, especially at the
dinner table. Unfortunately, this is extremely annoying for people around.
Shock value Children love attention. They soon realize that one surefire way of attracting attention is by using swear words. More often than not, they have no idea what they're talking about or the contexts in which they use the words. They know that these 'naughty words' have shock value and that's good enough. It's the thrill of the forbidden, which every adult can identify with. However, in the case of the older
child, say somewhere between the age of six and ten, their use of profanity
is a little harder to take. Somehow, it's not so easy to excuse. You feel
that children this age know very well the meaning of the words they are
using and are saying them deliberately to be mean and hurtful. In a sense,
that is a fair assumption. Children this age usually use bad language for
revenge or to gain control.
Tips on how to react
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