Anyone care to share what kind of bad habits or attitudes you suspect your little ones are picking up at the sitters/daycare?

Both my daughter and my nephew (both 25 months) have just recently began yelling all the time and being more defiant. At first I discarded it as Mialee being two and getting older, but both of them are using the exact same words and tone when behaving this way. It caused me to wonder if they both are getting it from things they are observing at the sitters.

My wife mentioned to the sitter that both Cole and Mialee have been yelling a lot more and have used the words "shut up". She asked the sitter if she knew where they might be getting this. The sitter responded that they may be getting it from her 4 year old twin sons.

I personally have never heard Mialee say "shut up" and I will not tolerate that kind of talk. Maybe she knows it, because she's never done that around me. But I don't want her doing it around others either as that is very disrespectful behavior.

I am not sure what can be done about this. It is impossible to keep your child from picking up ANY bad behaviors as they grow up and experience the world. The most I can do is give the appropriate response when I encounter such behavior.

Soooo.........

What kind of behaviors have you noticed your little ones coming home with that you are certain did not get picked up AT home?

My kids don't go to day care except for a couple of hours a day at the gym. When I worked full-time in the past, Marek was in day care and never brought home any bad verbiage/behavior, but he was 21 months when he started being home full-time with me.

That said, they are little sponges and don't need much exposure to pick up expressions/mannerisms. I have become much more conscious of the phrases I use because my kids use them back. For example, when I laugh uncontrollably, I sometimes say, "oh God". Guess who started saying that whenever he laughed? And I know I need to give dh another talking-to when I start hearing Marek walk around the house saying, "JEE-sus Christ!" in a p-o'd tone of voice. Remarkably, it's dh and not I who occasionally says a bad word or something that sounds crummy and has the kid pick it up. Some of you may recall this wonderful incident:

 

 
A sassy mouth and GUNS! Josh didn't even know what a gun was, and he went to pre-k and all I heard for a good month and a half was "pew-pew----- pew---- pew-pew-pew" and "shooting' with his thumb and index finger, and yelling "YOURE DEAD FOREVER!"

Rudi - I forgot about that video but I started CRACKING up when I watched it again!!!! I love Marek.

My two little ones get really hyper together. They run around the house screaming, laughing and being maniacs so I have to yell to get them to stop. So they tend to yell a bit more when they want someone to stop doing something. Of course I try hard to work on the yelling, but they are sponges and suck up everything!!!! I must have an attitude because Cora has been a bit snippy lately ... something else I need to work on I guess! No one is perfect.