Cursing 101

I’d like to offer a little advice to parents this morning: STOP CURSING in front of your children. Please. I’m begging you. It is not amusing to have kindergartners blurt out obscenities in the middle of play time or call their peers names I wouldn’t use to describe anyone.

Cursing, and using vile, crude language has become so casual in recent years, that I have a difficult time even discussing the topic with some parents. They just “don’t get it”. They have heard the words and used the words so often, they don’t notice them. They watch movies that use crude references to body parts and embarrassing situations as humor. They listen to music that validates crude language and even violence. They play video games that condone violence and crudeness. They do all of this with their young children, as some sort of bonding ritual. There doesn’t seem to be a difference in some homes between adult activities and children’s activities.

Even I have become more tolerant of language over the years. I try not to be offended or shocked by what people say. I have certainly had to adjust my opinion of young women who curse.  I have to remind myself that some women have mistakenly adopted cursing as a way to seem more assertive and in control. And yes, occasionally even I say things that I heard in my household as a child. But I don’t say them in front of young children. And I don’t think I cursed very much in front of my own.

We seem to have given up all attempts to be a “polite society”. We just leave it to censors to “bleep” out the most offensive things and we accept the rest. But we have to draw a line somewhere, and I think that line has to be in front of our children. Please…if you have a young child in your house, think before you speak. I've had enough this week.

Comments

[Megan]

I don't know who said it or what the actual verbatim quote was, but it was basically "profanity is the tool of a weak mind." Love it. Still curse every now and then, but that quote pops back into my head when I slip up.