‘Shut Up’ Is My Toddler’s Favorite Phrase, Which Should Make Day Care Fun

shutterstock_146892215__1396030408_142.196.167.223It’s taken me five months to potty train my toddler but he hears someone scream SHUT UP! a handful of times and now it’s his favorite phrase. No, it wasn’t me.

I recently made the decision to stop allowing my toddler to use my iPhone, which many of you yelled at me for and felt very judged over. I would like to reiterate here that it was a personal opinion and I’m jealous if you have a child that adheres to boundaries. Mine does not.

He became a pro at surfing YouTube, even though I uploaded all of those cute, educational games everyone says are so great for kids. His favorite show is Blues Clues and he managed to find a parody video that someone made of Steve, the star of the show, basically having a nervous breakdown. SHUT UP! SHUT UP! SHUT UUUUUUPPPPP! I heard that coming from my phone one day, which is when I decided I could no longer allow him to use it. Basically, if I am not going to get the 10 minutes the of peace the iPhone affords me because I have to watch him too closely to see what he is able to pull up, the iPhone is pointless anyway.

Shut up. Shut up. My toddler took to that phrase like a moth to a flame. At first, I tried ignoring it. That worked with the few “bad words” he’s already uttered. Yes, I am fully aware I won’t be getting any parenting medals any time soon. But no matter how much I ignored it – he still said it. He loves those words strung together. Loves them.

When ignoring didn’t work, I started trying to explain not to use those words:

It’s not nice.

Do you understand what that means? You are telling people to stop talking. 

It’s not nice.

Yeah. He doesn’t care. So the timeouts came. He’s on one as I write this, telling me to shut up from his room.

What the hell? I’m not “no boundaries mom” I swear I’m not – but my three-year-old will not listen to me when I tell him to stop saying “shut up.” Is this going to pass? What happens when he gets to daycare and keeps telling everyone to shut up? I’m hoping those daycare teachers have some tricks up their sleeves that I don’t know. I realize that isn’t an acceptable way to approach daycare (Hey! Can you fix my kid for me? Thanks!), but frankly, I don’t have a choice.

(photo: yang na/ Shutterstock)

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