After watching Netflix’s ‘History of Swear Words‘, I thought of sharing on the topic about how parents should handle or react when they found their child saying bad words, or swearing. When your child starts to say bad words, it cannot be helped. As our children get older, they are bound to encounter new words at school, TV, and online. You might get shocked one day when they say bad words that you didn’t expect them to say just yet. When that time comes, please don’t freak out. Instead, get ready to talk to your kids about them. Here are 5 simple tips to help you deal with the situation when it arises.
Remind your child to be careful
We aren’t saints. You probably say bad words yourself now and then. It’s acceptable in some cases, like when you are joking around with friends. However, you need to make sure that your child knows to be careful with their language. While some teenagers might be comfortable using strong words, for example, others might not be. Remind them to gauge the situation, location, and audience before letting their tongues loose to avoid offending other people.
Limit their exposure to bad words
This may be hard to do if they pick up bad words at school, but you can at least limit your child’s exposure to bad words when they are at home. Before allowing them to play certain video games or watch certain TV shows and movies, make it a point to check out the reviews first and make sure they aren’t flagged for offensive language. You may also want to turn off the comments of their social media accounts and on chat rooms to avoid them picking up inappropriate language online.
Replace the bad words with something else
This might seem silly to some teenagers, but younger children will benefit from learning alternatives to curse words they can use when they’re frustrated. Many people like to say ‘fudge’ instead of the f word, for instance, or ‘shucks’ instead of the s word. Tamer words can be just as effective at releasing frustrations once your kids get used to them.
Explain why it’s bad
Some curse words may seem like second nature to some people by now, but they shouldn’t become second nature to your children. Make sure your kids know that words can hurt, especially words that are used for bullying. It is never okay to use words that target a person’s gender, race, or religion. Whenever you hear someone on TV use words like that, make it a point to point it out and ask your kids how they could have handled things differently. This exercise will teach them right from wrong.
Calmly call them out
If you want your kids to stop using bad words altogether, call them out when they do it. Please don’t get angry, but calmly let them know that using curse words isn’t classy and is childish and immature.
Most importantly, live as an example. If you don’t want your kids to use bad words, do your best to avoid using bad words around them, as well. If there are older kids or adults in the household who use inappropriate language in front of your children, make sure you call them out, too. This way, they will know that it isn’t acceptable and will be more inclined to avoid using them.
