5 Year Old Language

Updated on November 17, 2010
S.S. asks from Saint Petersburg, FL
8 answers

Hi, Moms. How do you deal with the words pee, poop, butt, fart, etc. spoken by your five year old? You should know he is laughing hysterically which I know is 100% normal and very typical child humor. I am curious to hear how other parents curtail it or ignore it. Is it allowed if it's not name calling others? Is it never allowed at the meal table? I don't want to fuel it by giving negative attention. Let me know what has worked for your family. Thanks!

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So What Happened?

I got great advice from everyone. Making sure those words are not said at the table was a good place to enforce limits. We've discussed it enough that I can look at my son and he now says, "Oops. I'm not supposed to say that." I'm hearing it far less these days. Thank you so much.

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D.S.

answers from Tulsa on

it is so normal for this age bracket I ignored it he outgrew it fairly fast. but other parents of his friends that reacted to it thier kids did it longer. the farting they wont outgrow til 10 or so so get used to it. I allowed it it was not cussing. but if this had been said at dinner he would have been removed from the table.

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C.S.

answers from Victoria on

I allow mine to say poop, pee, but not butt or fart. We use booty & toot. I tell them the other words are adult words or big kid words. If they use them at the dinner table, I remind them that we don't discuss bathroom things during dinner etc...I don't allow name calling, I just simply say hey we don't name call, apologize please. Works here..My son still laughs about any kind of potty humor though and I'm ok with that, since it is normal.

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P.O.

answers from Harrisburg on

Mine doesn't say fart - but I discourage butt and allow poop and pee. If it gets suggestive such as saying to another person "I am going to poop on you", then I discourage that. If they are just laughing at a poop story or something to that effect, I usually ignore. Sometimes how they joke about it is funny too, so I must admit I smile every now and then - if even silently.

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S.L.

answers from Boca Raton on

We just tell our 5 year old, "just make sure you don't say that at school, you'll get in trouble". He listens. He doesn't keep saying it because it isn't "taboo" at the house because we act like its not a huge deal. And he has never said it out in public because he knows that those are just words you use when you are at home kidding around. We tell him that the teacher would put him in time-out. He's never been in time-out at school and is quite proud of that fact.

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H.G.

answers from Tampa on

I pretty much ignore it, unless it goes on for a couple of minutes of repeating the same thing over and over. A friend of his was in the car one day and my son said something. The other little boy said those are bathroom words and he couldn't say them. Stopped my son.

Right now this works for us, as he gets older we will change it I am sure as the words become less desirable.

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R.W.

answers from Tampa on

I know my Mom would have washed our mouths out with soap. But when my girls would say something that they shouldn't I just sat them down and told them it was naughty and that other people did not like to hear such talk. It worked for me. I also hear children saying a lot worse things then what your son is saying and the parents laugh with them. Just ignore him when he is doing this if talking to him doesn't work. Or make him leave the table without finishing his meal. But in most cases after you tell them it is bad and ignore them when they do it they will quit. The more attention he gets the more he will do it. If it were me I would tell him once and if he continued he would leave the table and not finish dinner. Then if that didn't make a change he would leave the table and go to his room and be put to bed. I do not believe in whipping a child. I never spanked my girls and they turned out great. But my Mom always told me to ignore their bad behavior and that they would quit and in most cases it did work. In other cases they were sent to their beds.

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A.B.

answers from Boston on

Hi S.,
I also have a 5 year old daughter who loves saying those words.
We do not allow it at the meal table. EVER.
I don't give negative attention to it. I try to ignore it for a while, and will put an end to it saying "that is enough", or I will change the subject. Kind of the tactic of "look, something shiny" to distract her.
I don't let her put it into names, because name calling is not allowed. If she can't something nice about people, she is not allowed to make comments. I remind her that she gets upset if people do that to her, so she is not allowed to do that to others.
Try to remember that this is a stage they all go through as they learn about bodily functions. When all else fails, try to be a little silly with it, too. Just make sure to not do it at the meal table. When they aren't getting a rise out of you, it will go away. Most of it is shock value.

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T.B.

answers from Miami on

None of those words are "bad" words but admittedly, I hate the word fart. I just don't like it. It sounds crude and vulgar so I have never encouraged that word and have always discouraged it by saying, "toot." I think it sounds better. Or a gas bubble in the tummy sounds more accurate.

As for pee and poop and butt, they are decent words. There are other words I've heard parents call poop and honestly, those words sound just as vulgar. It all comes down to what makes you feel comfortable and what words you find yourself saying because whatever words they are, trust me, the kiddos will repeat them. If your child repeatedly says a word or phrase you dislike, tell your child that the word sounds bad and instead offer a substitute word for that word instead. I hope this helps.

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