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Older Kids and Swearing

Parents know that whatever children hear, they will repeat. If they didn’t know this already, they likely found it out when their two or three year old said a cuss word for the first time. Many kids do this shortly after they are talking, and most often at the most inopportune time possible (such as sitting in church).
Kids this young don’t know any better, so many parents choose to teach their child that they are bad words and then either let it fade out and ignore it, or discipline the child so that they will stop saying it.

Whatever method you choose to use during this stage is irrelevant for when children begin using swear words as older kids though.
Older children know that cussing is wrong, and yet they do it anyway. Often, this is because they hear kids at school using bad words, so they may want to repeat them. There is no guaranteed way to get your child to never say bad words, just as there is no way to definitively make them stop once they have started.

But, there are a few things you can try that might possibly help:

• Teach them early—
By teaching your child as soon as they can talk that some words are bad, maybe this will lessen the likelihood that they will cuss when they get older and you aren’t around to discipline them for it. The goal with this method is to try to make it just natural that your child doesn’t say it.

• Don’t use them—
If you teach your child over and over their whole life that cuss words are bad and they shouldn’t use them, you will be teaching them nothing if you are using swear words while you are teaching them this. They may not swear in front of you, but children do a lot more imitating that they do listening, and this is important for parents to remember.

• Listen when other kids are around—
It is likely that your child doesn’t ever cuss—until he gets around his school buddies. If you think this is the case, pay a little closer attention when they are around, this way you can see if it is time for you to step in and remind your child that they are not to use bad language.

• Remind them that they aren’t other kids—
Often, kids will come home from school (when they still don’t say bad words) and be honest with their parents and tell them that there are other children who do use cuss words. In this case, you should remind your child that they aren’t that person, and that they shouldn’t want to be like that person, and that there is nothing cool about saying bad words.

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