When was the first time your child said a bad word?

When was the first time you heard your child say a four letter word? How did you react? The first time my daughter said a curse word, she was three. She said 'damn.' Her mother and I's jaws dropped. We could barely get the words out to explain to her that that was a 'bad' word. Naturally she didn't know that she had said anything wrong, and we didn't blow up at her, but we managed to get her to understand that it wasn't something for her to say.

Your daughter was a fast learner. I think I was 9 the first time I said it and I got an earload from my father, which was actually pretty valid because he screams constantly but he never swears, oddly enough.

Chris, you handled it the right way. My daughter was older than 3 but she went right for the gold. Let's just say it wasn't "fudge". She learned it from her mother but I'm the one who got thrown under the bus.

Well after the "I don't believe what they say that F word means" incident our youngest daughter was sitting on the floor playing with our new puppy, she kept saying "oh you sweet little bastard, you cute little bastard". I said to her " do you know what bastard means?", and explained that it was used as a swear word. She burst into tears, because she loved the puppy so much. We still laugh about the "sweet little bastard". If I had thought that she would never have said it again, I wouldn't have explained to her what it meant and that it was used mainly when someone was angry.

alan smithee wrote:Chris, you handled it the right way. My daughter was older than 3 but she went right for the gold. Let's just say it wasn't "fudge". She learned it from her mother but I'm the one who got thrown under the bus.

Funny how that turns into an immediate argument with their mother; going back and forth analyzing *who* (or whose relatives) curses more in front of them to the point where they'd pick up such talk. After that indiscretion, my daughters mother and I came close to having it out because of it.

None of my kids have said any bad words on purpose, but when my 2nd oldest was five, we let him watch Hancock. We explained that there would be some words that he couldn't repeat in the movie and knew that he understood so we decided it was okay. He was fine with the movie, but he kept calling it "hand cock". We'd correct him every time, but he just kept saying it, because initially someone laughed when he said it so he thought it was funny. For like two days he kept saying it and finally, since he had to go to school the next day, my husband sat him down and told him what "cock" means to many people. He was so embarrassed! Someone jumped on me about it, saying that we should have said it meant "rooster" but I just don't think that was the right thing to do and it wouldn't have been as effective at getting him to stop anyway.

Supernova wrote:Your daughter was a fast learner. I think I was 9 the first time I said it and I got an earload from my father, which was actually pretty valid because he screams constantly but he never swears, oddly enough.

By the time I was 9, I had already recited the expletive alphabet. It's funny though that I didn't know "bastard" was a bad word, because it wasn't one that was usually tossed around my house. So I went to school one day and said it in art class after hearing it somewhere else, just thinking it was another word that I wasn't familiar with. The teacher got all mad and gave me some kind of time out for saying a curse word but I didn't believe her. Later at home when we were watching a movie, someone said "bastard" in it and I laughingly repeated it and my mom got all shocked. She laughed and said that that was a bad word. I think she knew that I didn't know it was, so she didn't get mad.

Chris wrote:

alan smithee wrote:Chris, you handled it the right way. My daughter was older than 3 but she went right for the gold. Let's just say it wasn't "fudge". She learned it from her mother but I'm the one who got thrown under the bus.

Funny how that turns into an immediate argument with their mother; going back and forth analyzing *who* (or whose relatives) curses more in front of them to the point where they'd pick up such talk. After that indiscretion, my daughters mother and I came close to having it out because of it.

LOL. It wasn't like that with us. I just got my chops busted. We've never had one of those, "Well she didn't get that from my side of the family!" situations. This topic does remind me of something I don't remember but my father does. I must have been 5-7 years old. He said one day there's a knock on the door and a woman who didn't exactly ooze class is standing there with some runny nosed kid in tow. "Youse should wash yer kid's mouth out with soap!" she yells at Dad. He's thinking, "Oh great, what word did he pick up from his mother? " So expecting the worst he asked her what I said. "He called my son a procrastinator!" With that, my father said, "Well then he probably is." and slammed the door in her face.

Kids pick up shit QUICK! You gotta really be careful what you say around them. I remember the first time I heard my sister curse. She's really slick too. She knew she shouldn't be saying that, but she only repeated what I said. I remember being on the phone with her....she was about 4....and I was talking to her and some people were in the background and I asked something to the effect "so what the hell ya'll doing over there?". And she hollers out "Mommy, Z said what the hell ya'll doing over there?!".

When my oldest was about 5, she asked point blank "what's an asshole?" I turned as white as the washing machine. I asked her where she heard that word and she said from an older kid at school. After pondering for 10 second how to dodge the question, I told her the truth. That an "Ass" is another, less nice, word for "Donkey." That Donkey's are seen as stupid and that mean people are referred to as the word she heard in a way to mock them. Thank God she accepted that answer without me having to be specific about actual butts and buttholes.

The very first time my son swore, he wasn't even two, and his dad was play wrestling with him on the floor and my son got tired of playing and said, "Damn it." So, since it was so young, we just ignored it.

The first time it was totally intentional, he called his cousin a "bastard". He was around three or so, and I scolded him and he spent the rest of their visit in his room. He still remembers it to this day.

The first time was when my daughter was about 2. I forgot what movie we were watching, but the dialogue included the word "pussy." My kids were in the room and immediately I sort of glanced at them and said out loud to turn that down. It's amazing how perceptive babies can be....because my daughter picked up on it right away that THAT word was what caused the reaction. And with a devilish expression on her face, she repeated the word with a giggle.