Smart Mouth!

Emeraldsmom wrote: Okay, so for a while now, Emerald has such a smart mouth. It seems like sometimes everything I say to her, she has a smart mouth remark. Like I will say "Emi look, I carly is on tv" she will say "duh I already know that you don't have to tell me." She will get in trouble for this several times a day. What do I do. Anyone else having this problem w/a 4.5 yr. old?

mom21kid2dogs replied: Olivia (now 8) is very prone to repeat things she sees/hears. This became pretty obvious to us by 2/3. From that point on, we really have been careful about what goes into her little head cause it's bound to come out of her mouth. Honestly, that phrase sounds just like something on the older Disney/Teen Nick shows. We started by restricting the shows that were rated higher than her age group and we told her why. She was probably the only kid on the planet who didn't watch SpongeBob before 7 . This isn't meant as a TV debate, just saying limiting any influence that is auditorially reinforced might help. We remove her from every situation we can that is innapropriate, including the nightly campfires at the lake if the conversation becomes too adult or raunchy.
Although Olivia talks like a little adult, she doesn't (for the most part) have a smart mouth. Another thing I did was tell her I couldn't do something for her (like go to the park at her request) because I had to turn my ears off when I couldn't stand what was coming out of her mouth. Disrespect isn't rewarded by fun with mom. If it developed during an activity, we left. O didn't respond well to verbal direction (I don't like the way you're talking) and time out stuff so it had to more of an active discipline for her. She did respond quickly and well to it, though.
Hope this helps!

moped replied: Oh yes, Jack is very much the same.......bossy, saucy, know it all kind of kid. He would give me a response very much like that..........honestly, I put him on ignore often. If it is REALLY disrespectful he gets in trouble, but otherwise I ignore. This is my new way of dealing with it upon professional parenting advice and it does seem to work.

I find this age VERY tough!

coasterqueen replied: Kylie is doing the same thing. It just started though at age 6.5. She go "uggghhhh" and sigh, roll her eyes and toss her hair around. Drives me insane! I usually tell her to watch her smarty-ness or else she's going to be grounded from playing with friends and tv. She gets one warning a day, usually and she's had her tv taken away twice since this has started.

MommyToAshley replied:
Cheryl, we're very much alike in this matter. Ashley doesn't watch spongebob or some of the other shows on Nick Jr either for the very reason you stated.

Being grounded works for Ashley, and is the main disciplinary form we use. Fortunately, we don't have to use it too often. For Ashley, I had to help her realize that her tone of voice was not acceptable, moreso than what she said. I will not tolerate being disrespectful to me or any other adult. Period. And, like Cheryl, if we are at a social event and it happens, she will have to leave the event to go home. I know it's sad to see them miss out on something, but it only took one time for Ashley to get the idea that it was not acceptable. For me, this is one area that I thought it was important to be consistent and not allow it anywhere, anytime.... and now we often get comments on how polite and respectful she is.

mom21kid2dogs replied:
Oh yeah! Don't even get me started on tone of voice! But like Ashley, a few removals from parks, friends houses, etc and it went away really quickly!
Lots of stuff we do choose to ignore~sassiness was not one of them. It's just one of the "biggies" we chose to deal with swiftly and firmly but everyone has to choose what they can/will tolerate and to what extent it goes on.

MommyToAshley replied: I agree, we're not strict on every issue. There's some things we let slide or just plain ignore, but being respectful and telling the truth are the two biggies in our house.

TheOaf66 replied: Tanner does this but it is not necessarily from TV, it is just his nature (gets it from mom ) we have started a "Naughty Box". He is big on $$$ for allowance so now every time he says potty words or gets a smart mouth it costs him 25 cents and at the end of the week whatever he has left he gets.

The money from the box he has to put into the offering at church.

coasterqueen replied:
I agree that it's not necessarily from tv. I hate to admit it but sometimes I get "smart" when I'm frustrated or tired and kids are intelligent - they pick up on these things and not just from tv - from us and others. Unfortunately.... Please don't tell my husband I admitted that.

TheOaf66 replied:

Boo&BugsMom replied:
Um...from MOM??? He's also sarcastic...I wonder where he picks that up from??? Certainly not me!

Emeraldsmom replied: Thank you all soo much for the replies! I am not sure if it is from tv, but it is a big possibility.