This week I must have added two tiny mocking birds to my household because nothing said is safe anymore. Even normal words in the mouth of a toddler sound so inappropriate. Lucy’s new favorite word is silly, it comes out sounding more like the word sh*t. Which can really catch a parent off guard when their toddler is not yet speaking sentences to find context clues. I find myself having to investigate the intentions behind the word when she is repeatedly saying it. Which is not easy to do with a toddler. But almost always it’s an innocent reference to the horse Maximus in Disney’s Tangled. 

Now like any parent we have had some slip ups here and there with, well.. you know some not nice words. And if I’m being honest.. it is so funny to hear it repeated back. Somedays Matt and I can hardly keep our composure, holding back tears and muffled laughter to deter from encouraging it.

However, I can hear it already, “You should NEVER curse around your child.” Yeah thanks Karen I know. But I’m not walking around my house yelling profanities for no reason, okay. So chill. I’m not perfect, no parent is, and well mistakes will be made. We have figured out something along the path of toddlerhood that has proven helpful to keep our daughters from repeating bad words.

  So Matt had come across an article about how after you curse you should say, “banana” that way a toddler won’t repeat it. And if you’re rolling your eyes like I did to Matt, because surely one word could not prevent our children from repeating the bad ones magically. But hear me out. The first few times I said banana after a bad word there was not a word repeated back or she would ask me for a banana. However, it had absolutely nothing to do with the word banana and everything to do with language development. Toddlers tend to repeat just the last word said in a sentence or phrase. So here is what we have begun to do if and when we slip a bad word. Just say any random appropriate phrase after the curse word and what my toddler will repeat is the last thing I said. Which has worked amazingly so far. *insert bad word here* purple unicorn *or here* pretty dinosaurs. Now that I’m thinking about it maybe we should try saying some random SAT words…hmmm..

  Now the disclaimers: 

Only works if your child is mocking one to three word phrases. 

Subject to not work on every toddler. 

Will also not work forever so please be mindful you will have to start watching your language more carefully eventually(or don’t not my child and I don’t judge). 

This is just something that has worked for us so far and I thought I would share. So I hope this helps! Hope everyone is having a wonderful and healthy New Year!