My son repeated my swear word and I called it disrespectful

The cupboard handle came off in my hand. I said a word my seven-year-old isn't allowed to use.

He repeated it when his toy fell apart.

I told him that wasn't respectful. He asked who I had been disrespecting when I said it.

I said adults sometimes used different language. He asked whether becoming an adult meant the word got nicer.

I had hoped our house rule could survive on authority alone. The incident had given him a fairly specific objection.

We don't need every word I use in frustration to become part of his conversations. I can still set expectations about what we say at home. But calling his repetition disrespectful hadn't described what bothered me.

I disliked hearing my own word in his voice.

I told him I shouldn't have used it in front of him and that I wasn't going to defend it as a superior adult version. We talked about choosing something else when an object went wrong.

He suggested “broken banana.”

That has no obvious relationship to cupboard hardware, but neither did my original contribution.

The handle is back on. His toy still needs repair. Yesterday he said “broken banana” when a wheel rolled under the sofa, then looked at me to see if I would follow the agreement too.

I nearly laughed at the phrase. I decided he was allowed to enjoy finding an alternative without my treating it as another silly thing he had said.

I'm keeping it available. The cupboard has several other handles.