I love it when I see and hear children expressing themselves. It brings me joy to see them thinking and blossoming, especially my own children. What I don’t like, is when children express themselves to adults in a disrespectful manner OR they say things that are discouraging about themselves or others. Here are 6 things I absolutely HATE hearing children say.

1. Yeah. When someone asks a child a question, the answer should be “Yes” or “No”. You can even throw a “Sir” or a “Ma’am” in there for good measure. Hearing a child say, “Yeah” just does something to me. Not in a good way.

2. What?! I don’t which one I hate more: Yeah or What. When kids are talking to each other – fine. But, when an adult calls a child’s name and they answer, “What?!” just take me on out, because I can’t deal.

3. I’m bored. Attention kids: There are way too many things that you could be doing with yourself or for others. I saw this awesome picture on the web that I’m going to post in my home the next time they say they’re bored. It reads:
Have you….

Been creative?
Outside play?
Read a book?
Exercised (for 10 minutes)?
Done something helpful?

4. I can’t. I jokingly, but seriously, tell my kids that saying “I can’t” is fine if you’re telling your friends that you can’t come out to play, but I have a problem when we’re going over math problems and you say those two words. If you say those defeating words, especially before you even try, you’ve already lost the battle. “I can’t” are two words we don’t do in our home!

5. I’m fat/ugly. It saddens me to hear children say these words about themselves or others. The world is cruel enough without beating yourself up! Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but I truly hate to hear thhis. They’re blessed. They’re smart. They are beautiful!

6. Everyone else was doing it. Really? Really? As soon as they pull this one out, I pull out a variation of the age old comeback: “So, if your friends jumped off a cliff, would you follow?” Come on, kids. You can do better than that!

Call me “Old School”, but I think there should be a distinct difference in how children talk to their friends and how they talk to adults. I’m hopeful that if I reinforce the positive things that our children say and do, that we are making them better people in the long run.

BMWK – What words bother you when you hear children say them?