My 4 year old was playing in a sandbox today when some kid came up and tried to claim it as his own. She's pretty tough so she grabbed a stick and started smashing his sandcastle (it was pretty lame: just a pile of sand). She held reign over her part of the sandbox until it was time to leave and gave the kid a "Tschuss Schneckli" upon leaving. I thought it was pretty funny at first and gave her my approval. Later I started to wonder if it had a deeper meaning that maybe I shouldn't encourage. I don't necessarily want my 4 year old to be calling kids "limp dick" or something of the sort. Should I be concerned?

If you are the parent of a kid in Basel that got their sandcastle destroyed today, sorry about that but your child is a little sh!t.

Sorry I don't understand who is who here. Which one is the girl, which is the invader, who smashed what etc?

Which is your kid?

Schnecken is German for snails but can also be slang for pussy (not the kitty kat) "li" at the end of the word is Swissgerm meaning little one. So either she called her a little snail or....

but don't worry.. I don't believe it's meant to be very bad, my ex mother-in-law used the term all the time.

Sorry if I wasn't clear. My child is the 4 year-old girl sandbox invader who smashed the boy's sandcastle with a stick and then said "Tschuss Schneckli" upon leaving.

So my daughter called the boy a "little pussy"? I can live with that. Thanks.

Oh it was a boy she said that to..!? Poor kid..

Personally I'm impressed. She did call out a cheerful goodbye.

Don't worry. It does not mean something mean at all.

Schnäggli does indeed mean snail, but is rather used as a pet name.

E.g. a husband can call his wife schnäggli, in the sense of sweet heart

I assume someone else called her like this somewhere else - and she decided to use it.

So your kid was the "bully"

Oh well. I'm reasonably impressed a four year old girl would call a kid a little pússy, quite amusing.