Stopping the potty talk

[Josiegirl]

I have a 4 yo dcg who is in preschool ft. But being a day off yesterday she came for the day. Every meal or snack she started singing poopy in my pants, with the other dcks laughing and being her audience. After trying to redirect, and saying that's not nice, I finally made her go into the bathroom and when she was done, she could come back and join us. Well, it worked but temporarily.
Any other suggestions? She is definitely an entertainer and loves being the oldest in the group so all the others are her attentive giggling audience.

[ColorfulSunburst]

I ignore it. By my knowledge it is the best and fastest way to stop it.

[Mom2Two]

I teach children that I require polite talk here, especially at the table. Potty talk is fine if it's sensible (but not while eating--they can leave the table and come and talk to me if they have a problem).

And if they're playing instead of eating (after a reminder), they must be done. Or if they're distracting others then they can eat separately.

I'm pretty strict about decent talk.

[e.j.]

I tell my kids, "That's potty talk and I only allow that talk in the bathroom. If you want to potty talk, you can but you need to do it in the bathroom. You can talk in the bathroom all day long if you want, you can say whatever words you feel like saying but it has to stay in the bathroom. As soon as you leave the bathroom, it stops. Do you understand?" I've had some kids practically run to the bathroom so they can use their potty words! I can hear them saying their potty words and laughing after each one. It doesn't usually last long, though. Once they realize they're the only ones who are laughing, they come out of the bathroom and go back to what they were doing before they went in. Some kids get bored with it right away. Other kids need several repeat visits to the bathroom before they finally stop. While the potty-talking kid is in the bathroom, I'll quietly talk to the other kids and say, "Please don't laugh when so-and-so uses potty talk. He's not using good manners when he does that. Let's help him by not laughing." It's amazing how much they want to help and how quickly they tattle.

I did have a couple of 4 year olds who fed off each other. It took a couple of weeks to break them of it, but eventually they stopped. I think the thing that worked better than sending them to the bathroom was saying, "Hmm...I wonder what your mother would say if she knew you were saying that word at my house? Maybe I should give her a call and ask her?" I wished I had started with that!

[CeriBear]

I have a 4 year old boy who is fascinated with saying words like ”poopyhead” and “diaperpants” when we are eating snack. He does this because of the reactions and laughter he gets from the other kids. I’ve started having any child who uses a potty word at the table go to the other side of the room and eat their snack by themselves. They don’t like eating by themselves and so most of the potty talk at the table has stopped.

[Meeko]

Make a big deal of the kids NOT doing it. Completely ignore Miss Pottymouth.

"Well, lunch is over. Thank you soooo much Billy and Sue for being polite and not using potty words. How big and grown up you are! Let's read your favorite book before nap! Keep this up and we will make brownies on Friday!" If Miss Potty doesn't fall in line, she doesn't make brownies on Friday. Rinse. Repeat.

[Play Care]

I had a similar issue with my dc boy. While I usually ignore it, it only seemed to ramp up the talk with him.
I finally told him firmly that we didn't speak like that as it wasn't appropriate unless he had to actually use the bathroom. That seemed to do the trick.

[hwichlaz]

you aren't welcome at my table if you can't use manners


then I send them away....meal is over.

[Josiegirl]

Thanks all! Thankfully, dcg doesn't come all that often. I'll give some of your suggestions a try next time she's here. I think making her leave the table, go into the bathroom, and get it out of her system, then return when she's done, might be what I'll try. Even if I ignore it, she has a very captive audience with the 3 yos and I can tell them anything but they won't listen. They think every single thing is funny. Hard to compete with poopy talk.