Wednesday Worries – Parental Behavior

I always worry whether or not I am being a good enough role model for my kids when something like the following happens. My son who is four years old recently has taking to swearing and says things like “Damnit, Friggin, Stupid, Idiot….etc” so I tell him don’t say bad words, say something like Tartar Sauce like Spongebob. So my 4 year old promptly then replies to me when he drops something he was working on “Frigging Tartar Sauce” and all I do is slap my head in frustration.

Kids truly are sponges and absorb everything they see and hear around them, this is especially true for parents. My kids will often absorb some action or reaction that I have done in previous weeks and display the same trait, words or behavior if they encounter a situation similar. I tend to handle most things pretty well, but being from New York (no excuse, I know) swearing is almost like built into our common speech. For some reason, I am perfectly able not to do it when at work and on conference calls but at home I tend to swear without even realizing it. My seven year old is very good about knowing “adult words” and he won’t repeat anything bad, but my 4 year old actually enjoys repeating curses and scolding him just causes his stubborn mode to switch on while he pushes back to see how much he can get away with.

For every good action or behavior I role model all it takes is one bad one and that is what sticks the longest with them, all I can say is Frigging Tartar Sauce.

-Justin Germino