Potty Mouth

It's official.  My son has a potty mouth.  I'm not talking about the occasional naughty word...I'm talking about complete and total diarrhea of the mouth.  In fact, 'diarrhea' is one of his new words.  I do take the blame for that one though, as I sang the 'Diarrhea Song' to get the kids to laugh and smile for the camera one day.  Yes, I know that I am a little extreme in my methods to get good pictures, but hey...we all have faults... So anyway, back to the issue at hand.  The problem is that we can't get Will to STOP saying naughty words.  There is absolutely NOTHING (that we have found yet) that motivates him to clean up his trap. 

While this has been a frustrating situation at home...it didn't explode at daycare............until X-mas.  Then a flood of colorful words rained down on his friends and teachers.  The first day back after X-mas break he blessed them with a steady stream of 'stupid', 'bagina', 'tooshie' and 'dammit'.  It wasn't just the occasional slip of the tongue either.  I was informed that there were times when he would get in trouble for doing something he shouldn't and his response was to sit there and yell the words over and over and over and over and over again...  What a sweet boy. 

Between the teachers and Drew and I, we have attempted every solution we can think of...  We've tried ignoring him, which is VERY hard to do in certain situations (especially at daycare when his mouth is influencing others around him).  We've done timeouts, sent him to his room, taken away food, separated him from Lili, not taken him to the movie we promised to take him to, taken away his morning 'treat' (we will give a couple of marshmallows, or 1 Starburst, or something very small to the kids if they get dressed and ready for the day without too many struggles), taken away his sticker chart priveleges at school (which would result in special stickers and/or prizes)........but the sweet words still spill out.  Things got so bad with Will he was actually sent home from daycare last Thursday.  Not only was he generally naughty and yelling obscenities, but he also bit his teacher.  Yep...bit.his.teacher.  I've considered everything I can think of as a possibility for why he might be behaving this way...but I can't prove anything.  Does he need more time at home with Mom?  Is there a conflict with a particular teacher or child?  Is the environment just too much for him?  Are situations not being responded to appropriately?  The possibilities are endless. 

Although we were seeing the potty talk at home, things appeared to be 100x's worse at school...or at least that's what I thought.........until I took the kids to Target this past weekend.  We had had a great morning together, the kids were happy and so was I.  We got through 3/4 of our shopping when Will suddenly decided to bless the store with his booming voice.  He wasn't throwing a fit...just singing and yelling at the top of his lungs for no reason.  I asked him to stop, but he continued.  I tried to distract him with games on my phone, but he continued.  When I threatened that he could not use his new stickers at home that afternoon, he continued.  Finally I told him he would NOT be using the stickers or the new craft supplies with Lili when we returned and that's when I finally got a reaction.  He did stop yelling, but he got mad...and began harrassing other customers.  By this point we were in line to pay (Thank God) but this is where he decided to call everyone around him 'stupid baginas' and to say 'dammit' over and over again.  I can't even describe to you the looks on their faces.  At first they seemed puzzled...almost questioning what exactly he was saying........but then it became very clear.  Target was packed and there were tons of people around us, but of course the only looks I noticed were the ones of disapproval and/or shock.  I didn't notice the ones who may have been snickering.  I, personally, would have laughed if it were not my child...but since he was, I was MORTIFIED.  He continued spewing these things all the way to the car and all the way home, 'You're a stupid bagina Mommy...you're a stupid bagina Lili! Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, damn, damn, dammit.'  It was all I could do not to drop him off on the side of the road... 

This week seems to be a little better so far, though I am not getting my hopes up.  He had a fairly good day on Monday with very little potty talk.  Tuesday he said a few more words, but not to the extent we were hearing last week.  Today, Wednesday, I'm hoping in a 5-6 star day.  As long as I'm seeing improvement in his behavior, I'm all good...  I don't expect him to be perfect all the time, but seriously kid...give Mommy a break!  There are many moments when I think he just might be the death of me...but then I see him do something so incredibly sweet and I see those big brown eyes of his...and I melt...