I have a bad habit of swearing and using the f word too much. I'm not proud, I grew up in a household where swearing was unheard of. I never direct foul language at my children but they've obviously heard it as my 4 year old has said the f word a couple of times recently. I know it's my fault. So without the bashing I'm looking for 2 pieces of advice; 1- how do I break this habit altogether? 2. If my child says it, how should I react? So far I've spoken quietly and told him it is not ok to say that naughty word but maybe I should try a different approach. I know if I break my habit he probably won't hear the word as much and will hopefully stop. Thanks.
5 Replies
I'm in the same boat :( miss 2 has been picking up my nasty habit and repeating it allllll the time! I have been telling her it's a naughty word too, and that I shouldn't say it either.
We just bought another "swear jar" money tin, that seemed to work for us last time (when miss 2 was just a baby and my eldest was telling me off all the time).
You can buy a swear jar for yourself and your 4 year old. Use it primarily for yourself but take the opportunity to tell your 4 year old that their swearing is not ok and you are sorry that you have sworn too and you are going to stop and you would like your 4 year old to stop with you.
Put money into the swear jar every time one of you swear, ask your 4 year old to do an extra little chore to earn money if they swear and every month take the jar in to donate it your local womens shelter or another charity/local organisation. Dont use it to reward yourself.
I would also get another jar to put in $1 for everyday that neither of you swear, this can be the reward jar. Once your swear jar stays empty for a month then take the money out of the reward jar and use it to reward the both of you for achieving the goal.
Swear tally worked for me, you don't notice a dollar or 2 at a time but we had a tally on the fridge, when we swore we would put a mark up, every time the word was repeated by our son it was 2 marks, at the end of the month or week (can't remember) we had to put in the amount and do sit ups or push ups for each mark too. You notice the big chunks of money more. All the money then went into our sons bank account. If our son days a swear word we say we don't say that word, if you hear mummy or daddy say it you can tell them off. Works for us :)
Replace it with a kid friendly alternative... Frick, frack, feck, freak, ive brought back fffffar out!
Replacing the swear words with kid friendly words seems like a great idea. Good luck it's hard to break any habit. You might be making more people happy than you realise - my hubbies family swear like sailors even using the 'c word'. It's at the point where I don't want my kids to be around them if they can't control themselves and as I've already politely asked them to stop I don't know what else I can do!