Putting a Stop to Potty Mouth
“poo-poo, ca-ca, bum-bum”
Potty words are obnoxious, for sure. “But they’re so much fun!” says Arnall. “Children know other people laugh. They know they embarrass parents by saying the names of body parts.” These words definitely get attention, and as Wight points out, “for some children, negative attention is better than no attention at all.” What you can do: Try ignoring the behaviour. This is tricky at Swinemar’s dinner table, where Owen’s potty mouth usually has his big brother in stitches. But it may be a matter of setting boundaries, says Arnall, such as saying these words are fine only in the bathroom. But in school, or around adults, they’re not appropriate. “The more attention given to the words, the more the child will use them,” she says.
Toronto freelance writer and mom Lisa Bendall can relate to mouthy kids, as she herself is rarely at a loss for words.
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