Do you cuss in front of your kids?

Jefe in the CO wrote:

Only in times of duress.

Just last night I was getting my darling little girl into her PJ's and she kicked me square in the nuts. When my wife asks what happen I remarked, "She kicked me in the..." about this time both my boys were staring at me, intently, relishing what was sure to come next, "...cajones."

They looked disappointed and said, "Dad, don't speak Spanish just to try and keep us from knowing what you're saying."

CAJONES LOL. COJONES

You can have the post deleted, but she still wraped her lips around my knob.

Perhaps they are "just words," but a mullet is also "just a hairstyle," and a trailer is just "a house with wheels."

My parents picked up foul language from me. I feel kind of bad about it, actually. I'll try to tone it down when I have kids one day.

Hell no!

Does anyone actually use the word "cuss"? Why not "curse"? Do you think it's bad luck to say "curse words"?

When did LR stop censoring the word shit? Props to them I approve!

ewafdfd wrote:

Does anyone actually use the word "cuss"? Why not "curse"? Do you think it's bad luck to say "curse words"?

I've actually always thought that cuss and curse were both strange words. Cursing is what witches do. Normal people swear.

"Damn you to hell!" That's like cursing someone to go to hell. Like a witch. I have no idea who uses the word "cuss", I've only heard it once or twice in real life and I laughed both times.

I have taught my kids life lessons.

I let them know that they are nothing more than a lack of vocabulry by people who use four letter words as nouns, adjectives, and pronouns in place of appropriate words simply because they do not have the knowledge or depth of other words.

Mick Lovin wrote:

I let them know that they are nothing more than a lack of vocabulry by people who use four letter words as nouns, adjectives, and pronouns in place of appropriate words simply because they do not have the knowledge or depth of other words.

I would disagree. I work with many highly educated and well compensated folks that swear like sailors. My wife, a practicing attorney (litigation), has 5 years post grad (MBA and JD) is the most well read person I know. She also swears in front of our kids (and at work among colleagues and opposing counsel, but never in front of a judge).

We both swear in our own house in front of our own kids. I played the YouTube of Carlin's Seven Dirty Words to my 8 year old. Big fucking deal.

People who say they are just words, are either stupid or hypocrites or both. Why do you bother to tell your wife/girlfriend (or in LRC cases boyfriends) that you love them. If they are just words, then why say them.

And to the poster who wrote about mullets and trailers, BINGO! but they would never see the insult.

Obama dealing w/ white boys wrote:

People who say they are just words, are either stupid or hypocrites or both. Why do you bother to tell your wife/girlfriend (or in LRC cases boyfriends) that you love them. If they are just words, then why say them.

And to the poster who wrote about mullets and trailers, BINGO! but they would never see the insult.

Well aren't you just a little Miss Prissy!

You just prove that trash is not based economically.

Yes of course wrote:

I would disagree. I work with many highly educated and well compensated folks that swear like sailors. My wife, a practicing attorney (litigation), has 5 years post grad (MBA and JD) is the most well read person I know. She also swears in front of our kids (and at work among colleagues and opposing counsel, but never in front of a judge).

We both swear in our own house in front of our own kids. I played the YouTube of Carlin's Seven Dirty Words to my 8 year old. Big fucking deal.

Father of the YEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRR!!!

exciting wrote:

only before I hit them. This way they associate swearing with pain and they won't swear.

Concerned Citizen wrote:

My parents picked up foul language from me. I feel kind of bad about it, actually. I'll try to tone it down when I have kids one day.

I don't think you will have to "tone it down" for your kids. I kind a got a feeling that they might be teaching you some inappropriate language. Life is funny that way.

I curse in front of my friends, mom, and brother. Not so much in front of my dad. And I do not curse when I'm with a young lady. It's a sign of immaturity.

Cuss. profanity.

First of all, recognise that the acceptibility of various words "in polite society" or on "a family show" or in "mixed company" is all a matter of context and culture. There is no such thing as a profane or vulgar word a priori. A word is only crude or suggestive because we are conditioned to or choose to regard it as such.

Only a little over a century ago, it was considered vulgar to say "leg" because it irresistibly conjured up visual imagery of that unbearably erotic female extremity. In polite society one said "limb" or you revealed yourself to be a boor or a philistine.

Only a century or so before that, one could say shit or c*** before royalty without a blush.

Thirty years ago,it would have been unthinkable to say "pee" in mixed company, in a schoolroom, for example, or on television. To tell a runner to get his butt in gear was perilously close to the line, and to say "ass" in front of a student was unquestionably way over it.

None of those expressions raise an eyebrow when uttered by either sex in class now.

Yet a film now will still get an R rating for a few "f***s."

It is sad to think how much energy is expended in high schools even today trying to ensure that kids never encounter the word "f***" whenever an adult is around, or is in a positiono censor it, as if to foster the hypocrisy that adults are unfamiliar with it, or don't use it. Were you fooled by this as a kid? They aren't now, either.

Consider the all-too-frequent meeting with some kid's parent within months of the day he will be called on to vote, or possibly die for his country, and the topic of controversy is that I have given him a reading list from which to choose an independent reading book, and he has happened to choose "Cather in the Rye" in which he encountered the word "f***" (incidentally, in a most innocuous context- Holden objects to it being scrawled where his sister will see it.)

Does anyone imagine that high school kids are not familiar with the word, and use, and overuse it themselves?

As with alcohol, I think it is useful to young people to have available to them the example of adults who use strong language judiciously, rather than constantly. My own father used language with contextual judiciousness, with sensitivity to the audience and the situation, but expressed his contempt for people who were linguistically squeamish with the dismissive "He wouldn't say 'shit' if he had a mouthful."

The fact is, in many situations, "f***" in all its forms, is an extremely useful, expressive, and versatile (not to mention common) word.

The problem where kids are concerned, as with much else, is that they tend to overuse those things with which they are just becoming familiar; be it items of clothing, music, hairstyles or new and colorful language they tend to use the novel thing constantly, often imprecisely, or with little subtlety, and with little appreciation for nuance. In short, with their clothing, music, hair,language and whatever is the common group fetish of the moment, teenagers have a certain penchant for employing it awkwardly, immoderately, inelegantly,and thus, from the adult perspective, unbecomingly,and annoyingly.

So the better question is not "Do you 'cuss' around your kids?"- a question that implies that cussing is a fault we all share, but with self-contol we can protect our chilren from exposure to-but rather "Do you 'cuss' expressively, moderately, appropriately, around your children so that they have a model other than their equally clueless peers on how to express themselves eloquently and stylishly, incorporating powerful expressions with economy and impact rather than with inarticulate monotony?"

Conundrum wrote:

Concerned Citizen wrote:

My parents picked up foul language from me. I feel kind of bad about it, actually. I'll try to tone it down when I have kids one day.

I don't think you will have to "tone it down" for your kids. I kind a got a feeling that they might be teaching you some inappropriate language. Life is funny that way.

Lol, maybe! I doubt it though. My vocabulary is both enormous and earthy. Maybe there will be some new dirty words and expressions by the time I have kids.