Bathroom Humor | Imamother

amother

Seafoam

Sat, Aug 04 2018, 10:25 pm

I know that it is typical for little kids to find words such as "poop" and "fart" overly hilarious.
What age range is the norm for bathroom humor/Potty mouth?
Until what age is bathroom humor/Potty mouth normal/ what age would you consider way too old for this behavior?

amother

Honeydew

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 7:53 am

You didn't ask for suggestions to deal with the situation I hope you don't mind if I give one-
I tell DS that almost everybody in the world poops and for the people who can't poop, their greatest desire probably is that they could. He's been pretty mature about the topic - at least around me.
I have an adult male relative who says related jokes (like about eating beans...). I dryly say "ha ha ha" and move on.

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 2:19 pm

I train them to modest language as soon as they're well toilet trained and don't need my help with this anymore. The next step is teaching them about adults who behave inappropriately and how important it is to tell parents even if it means talking immodestly. I don't get it to use these words randomly. It's not tznius.

amother

Lilac

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 5:41 pm

As soon as I teach them the words or they start picking them up from friends (usually around toilet training either way), I start gently teaching them that these words are for the bathroom only - and any and all inappropriate words get classified as bathroom words, which they can say in the bathroom as much as they want any time. And any time I catch them using these words outside the bathroom, I calmly and uninterested tell them they are welcome to go to the bathroom and say the words there or they can decade to stay where they are and speak appropriately. Sometimes they do go to the bathroom, but it quickly loses it's fun in isolation. I find completely outlawing the words just makes them more attractive, but giving them an outlet for it keeps their language appropriate most of the time. It isn't a perfect system, but I think gently teaching this from the beginning avoids a more difficult transition later.

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 5:53 pm

They never found it fun. It's a matter of fact type of idea. Yes we all have. .. and yes, we all use the toilet just like we all eat, sleep, talk, walk, etc. No excitement involved. When I brought up the stranger danger topic recently like I do once in a while, my grade school boy said "yeah, it's having הנאה on the cheshbon of others." Ze hu

FranticFrummie

Sun, Aug 05 2018, 7:05 pm

amother wrote:

I saw this exact technique on Super Nanny, and it worked perfectly.

In my experience, girls outgrow it a lot faster than boys. Some "boys" never outgrow it. Rolling Eyes