BellaOnline Forums Family Moms ACK! My baby boy said THAT?!?

OK, cussing is not allowed in my house. My husband and I do not generally cuss either. I will admit to words slipping out when extreme frustration or pain occurs, though. But we do not do so in front of the kids. Which makes for some interesting epithats ("holy...yikes!", "good...knight" - got that one from my pastor)

But this past weekend my 5 yr old and I were watching the "Transformers" movie - the live one. My husband walked into the room to see what was on, there was a big explosion, and my darling little boy yells out, "What the hell was that?!"

Aaaaaaagghhh! We turned the movie off very quickly, told him that was not a nice word, and said he could not watch anymore of the movie.

Now he's running around calling my older son a "stupidhead" or "dumbhead" and other not nice things. No more cuss words - but just not stuff that I want him to say.

What happened to my sweet little boy?

I know he's going to pick up stuff, and I know there are cuss words in that movie - so this is in large part my fault. But it just all seemed to happen all of the sudden!

They only have to hear it once.

My 3 yo is stuck on "What the heck???" and "How in Hades???"

Sounds like your sweet little boy picked learned something from others, maybe at school. I remember when mine came home from school the day we were having a birthday party for him. I had balloons, and he said, "What the hell is that?" I asked him if he knew what hell was? He didn't. I explained to him what the Christian belief is (we aren't Christian) and told him that if he used it to mean that, it is okay to say it, but not otherwise. Never said it again.

Then there was the time, after I called him a goose (he was being silly), his response was, "And you're an [censored]!" (He got that from the Narnia books, but was young enough to not realize that it wasn't acceptable American English!) Last time I ever heard a cuss word from him.

But sometimes, kids like to try on different personas, rather like trying on a new hat, getting a feel for it, seeing what you look like in it. You may see other trait try-ons. Just calmly tell him where the limits are, and why. That way, he can be free to experiment with those different hats, but not cross beyond a comfortable limit.

Oh -- and if you can't explain why, then you might want to reexamine why you want or don't want certain behaviors. Sometimes my son talked me out of something, or into something, because he had a valid reasoning.

lol i my daughter maddy once went around repeating damn. I just laughed it off and soon she stopped. Its not a constant thing she does. I also remember being 8 and telling my foster sister [censored] you b/c she told me to be quiet. I remember her asking me to repeat myself, so i slowed it down for her and said [censored].... you. yep my mom tried the whole i dont curse thing with me which was [censored] and i knew it too.