Bad Language in a 2 Year Old

Here is the thing, he has no idea those words are any different than apple. Sorry but you shouldn't be taking him around cussing like that when he is forming language.

Pretty much all you can do at this point is stop taking him to see daddy work. Perhaps meet daddy for lunch instead or tell the guys to grow up when they are kids around.

If you don't he is going to run into someone who reacts and then he has a new weapon to use against mommy. Right now he doesn't know the difference, keep it that way and teach him some new words.

Ditto Dana. Find other things for him to pay attention to and remember-- he's only repeating what he's heard.

Instead of focusing on your son, ask your husband to clean up his own mouth and find some other activities for him. Silly words "drat", "rats", "fandango"... we like silly phrases like Holy smokes, Hot rats, Great Scott!, shucks...

I agree with not using soap. I had Camay put in my mouth for repeating words my parents used when I was four or five. I still remember it... and remember feeling that it wasn't fair they got to say it and I didn't. (It's not alcohol or cigarettes or sex... it's a word, and as William S Burroughs pointed out: Language is virus. If we introduce it into our environment, our kids *will* catch it. ) If it's that bad that we punish them to such an extreme, we shouldn't be doing it either.

You need to understand that 2 yr olds are parrots. They will repeat everything and anything they hear, they do not understand about 'bad words'.

However this is a great teaching opportunity for you and his dad. When he says those words say something like 'sweetie we don't use words like that in our family', then let it go. The bigger deal you make of it the more he will use them. Hey he got your full and complete atttention.

Then I would speak to the men on the jobsite and ask them to monitor their speech when small children are present.

I think I'd keep him away from the work site for a while and hopefully between that and you not making a big deal about it, he will "discover" some new words to use!

My son gets "the soap" for naughty words. Here is a link. Its not harmful just nasty:
http://www.everyday-wisdom.com/homemade-lye-soap.html

Ps - this soap is mostly made of food if I have the right one. BTW my son has been told before that the words are not for his use. He gets them from is bio dad and we tell him constantly that they are not nice words. He thinks they are funny. All it is, is a bad taste! I think the one I make is veg. oil, lard and water. He tasted it once (without a fight) and now all I have to do is say naughty words get washed out of your mouth with soap... End of that word!

I made mine hold a bar of soap between their teeth for about 30 seconds to a minute. It works well.

I'd not go to the site for a while and ignore DS's language. If he keeps letting it fly, tell him those are grown up words and he should not say them. It may be good for him to hear that from DH.

Infamously when SS was a tot, he picked up "dammit" but grew out of it.

My guy is 3 and has been a sponge for the last year or so. When he says something he has heard (my Dad cursed and he heard him, Dad passed 5 months ago and my guy still says, "But Tata said it," ) we look him in the eye and say, "We do NOT say that (or those) word(s), EVER." A promise of going to his room if he repeats it also helps, and the words have become fewer and further between with us staying consistent.

We don't make a big deal out of it with punishment because as you said, if he knows it's bad he'll do it over and over again.

My nearly six year old daughter has heard her fair share of bad words and at one point started to repeat them as well. I explained to her the difference between bad words and good words. She knows piss and pee mean the same thing etc but if she says the bad one, it will make people upset and think her very uncute.

Once, when I dropped a pair of scissors point down on my foot and let some choice words fly, she pointed out that I said bad words and asked why I could say them but she couldn't. In pain, I tersely replied, "These are adult words and you can say them when you're 18." It was a quick explanation that she accepted, thank goodness. I have never heard her repeat any other curse words, except shortly after hearing this explanation, she excitedly told her daddy when he came home from work that day, "When I'm 18 I can say piss instead of pee!!" and I had to run to the other room so she couldn't hear me laughing.

Later that month we were visiting my parents when she herd my father curse at the TV and she called him on it. "You said a bad word!", she sang out. I thought I'd test her and asked her what bad word grandpa said. She almost tripped up and repeated it but then caught herself and instead replied, "You know what one it was!!"

Good girl.