Having Fun with the Zokutou Word Meter

[mrockwell]

Writing

The poem (which currently clocks in at over 100 lines) and I called a truce so I could work on a short story that tumbled out of my brain in the wee hours as I was tossing and turning and decidedly not sleeping. The working title is "A Gold Star for Amy." No, it's not YA, or even the Higglytown Horror tale I mentioned earlier. It would best be described as magical realism, I think. It's flowing pretty well; I have 750+ words already, and will probably write more tonight.

757 / 5,000 (15.1%)

Everything Else

Well, let's see, EB has the flu (fever, body aches, headache, sore throat, and sniffles, but thankfully no tummy issues) and YB has learned a bad word, which he delights in repeating. I'd like to say he learned it from his Seabee father, but the truth is I sometimes have a potty mouth, and it's biting me in the butt now. Hard. Anybody have any good strategies for getting them to unlearn bad words?

Comments

[sheriffjoe.livejournal.com]

Yes. Tell YB that it is a bad word and he shouldn't use it...then ignore it if he brings it up again. Children tend to react to reinforcement and, if reinforcement dictates that they will receive attention when they say things, they often repeat those tings for the attention...if that makes sense. In my day, I'd have my butt paddled with a wooden spoon. Today, that would be considered child abuse...sigh...

[(Anonymous)]

Anybody have any good strategies for getting them to unlearn bad words?

What worked well for us was to tell my son that some words are 'grown up' words, and that when he's a grown up he may use them. As he got into his teen years, we then stressed that even though both his parents occasionally swore that it is something that people judge you by and to be aware of it.

That, and if as a teen he ever swore at me he would be in BIG HUGE YOU CAN'T BELIEVE HOW MUCH trouble.

FWIW and all.

[kyrillandra.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me. I'm on my Mom's computer.

Kyrie

[mrockwell.livejournal.com]

Heehee. I was wondering!

Love the icon!

That's a good idea, about grown-up word, but he's only 2 1/2. He doesn't really get waht "grown-up" means yet. Right now I'm just trying to redirect him without making too big a deal out of it. That worked when he started saying "Crap!" (which he learned from me while watching a Nebraska football game, heh) -- whenever he'd say it, I'd respond, "That's right, clap!" And then start clapping. It doesn't seem to be working quite as well this time around, but fingers crossed!

Hope you're doing well! I've been thinking about you. ::HUGS::

[mrockwell.livejournal.com]

And please excuse all the typos. Sheesh.

[mysanal.livejournal.com]

As hard as it may be, what I'm hearing from my friends with kids is that I need to ignore them when they say things. Getting no attention = Won't Keep Doing It. Generally. ;->