Swearing, bad words, dirty language, etc. Children don’t just get into these; they pick these languages up from somewhere. That 'somewhere' is my concern here. It is bad enough and even frustrating, knowing that you cannot really control everything your kids hear outside. However, as parents, you can control what they hear and how they speak at home. You know what they say, charity begins at home. Here are some of the ways we can help shape up the way our kids talk:

1. Pay attention to what they read: Really, children book writers need to find ways to convey their messages to the kids without using any form of curse word. Maybe a writer wants to portray a bad boy who likes to curse other kids. You can just leave it at that, 'the bad boy who likes to curse' but using actual curse words to site this example is not a good idea. Parents should look out for books like these as our kids could pick on these words. We all know bad habits seem to be the easiest to pick up even among adults.

2. Pay attention to what they watch: Well the TV unfortunately remains the biggest avenue that exposes kids to lots of negative stuff. You may not be able to control what is shown on TV, but you certainly can control what your kids watch on TV. In my country for instance, there is a big reality show going on at the moment, this show usually last for three months during each season. This present season has all calibers of housemates, who curse, swear, curse, swear all day long. DSTV repeatedly show parents how to use the parental guide via their TV remote to put a pass- word on that channel, this way, your kids can't sneak in to watch when you are not there. Also pay attention to the kind of cartoon your kids are watching, I think the cartoon world have gone global too. Producers tend to forget the heavy watchers, who happen to e kids.

3. Pay attention to what you, the parents say around your kids: you cannot curse or swear repeatedly around your kids and expect them not to pick up these words and use them on their siblings or among themselves.

4. Pay attention to the friends they are hanging out with: If your children have friends whose parents curse or swear at each other all day, the chances are that those kids would be full of curse words too. As long as your kids hang out with them, your kids would in no time begin to use curse words too.