Do you cuss in public or are you a closet cusser (and only cuss at home)? How do you get teenagers from using the good ol’ “F” word?
I swear like a sailor and I’m trying very hard to correct this. I curse all the time. At work and at home I try to limit it to damn and hell but if the kids aren’t around I let the f bomb fly without batting an eye.
I’ve tried substituting fudge for fuck, heck for hell, darn for damn, sugar for shit and cheese and rice for jesus christ but it’s just not the same!
“Swear like a Sailor” I have heard this term before. Why do Sailors swear so much? I don’t get the purpose of cussing. I hate it! I want the kids to stop.
Well I was a closet cusser until I left home. Now I try and not cuss so much but it is difficult.
If you have teenagers cussing at home they probably do it to get a reaction from you. Especially if the reaction is you being exasperated with no real consequences for them. You need to set clear rules on acceptable language and stick to them and follow them yourself and even still it will not get them to stop overnight especially if they have been doing it for a long time.
We do not swear in our home. Not even the teenagers. It helps that we also do not read, watch and/or listen to TV, music, movies or videos with offensive language.
If one uses crass language, I politely but firmly tell them that crude and crass language is not permitted in our home. Even if I barely know the the young man, they generally say something like, “ok, sorry, won’t do it again.”
I’ve only had one do it more than twice and he was asked to leave and told that he was welcome to return when he could control language and speak without using offensive language.
I did however just this weekend learn that my son plays a card game during lunches at school, called “Bull Shit”. (Is Bull Shit the profanity, one word or two?) Apparently he has averted the no profanity standard by saying “BS” in the game. We had a brief talk explaining that since saying BS, still makes the words Bull Shit go throught the speaker and listeners brain, it is equally offensive. However, this being Texas and the context of the game and the circumstances I came to know of the game, (I had laughed heartily until I was near breathless) he now knows that, that particular profanity, in a specific context, does not offend his mother. I did however remind him later privately, that while he may choose to do it while playing that game at school, I would prefer that he never do it outside the context of the game or at church or in front of his grandmothers.
I suppose that makes me a closet cusser, because I’ve now been taught to play a game called Bull Shit and enjoyed it very much.
Bullshit’s a fun game but isn’t it a drinking game?
I’m a teenager… And i cuss quite frequently actually. But to be courteous and not look like an anwry little, you know what; i refrain from cussing while around adults such as my parents. But in public i just cant resist sometimes, but i dont yell it at the top of my lungs.
I’m able to effectively filter it out of inappropriate situations, but I do keep company that incorporates such into daily speech.
There is nothing closeted about my profanity. I control myself at work because I’m an English tutor and it would be unseemly to pepper my explanations of grammar with “fuck” and “shit”, but I’m pretty much unconcerned about offending people.
Though Abby’s post reminds me of “Utah swearwords”
“Oh my heck.” “Frick!” “Frickin’ heck” “freaking heck” “oh my freaking heck.”
It’s like they don’t get that saying “Oh my gosh! That’s so fricking cool” is exactly the same as saying “Oh my god! That’s so fucking cool!”
I disagree that gosh is exactly the same as saying god. It’s not the same at all.
I swear all the time. My boss is a big fan of the “F” word, so I pretty much let fly at the office, too (although not around just anyone). I see no problem with it at all, as long as my audience isn’t offended. My husband is an ex-Marine, and has the rare and awesome talent of being able to say “fuck” six or eight times in one sentence. Actually, at that point I get annoyed. But I don’t think I’d swear as much if I didn’t hang out with him all the time.
Abby, maybe you could substitute “cow pie” for “bull shit”, although I think the meaning would seep through. 
I have no idea if it’s also a drinking game.
This is the game he has been playing at school. Apparently among Texas high school boys, it’s played by the bullshit name (Thank you Google, I now know it’s one word) rather than by “I doubt it”.
pepperlandgirl I am familiar with “Utah swearwords” and and find them unacceptable for the same reason I mentioned above. Even if you say “What the heck!” or “What the flip!” I suspect the speaker and every listener thinks the harsher word. In my opinion it makes “heck” and “flip” just as offensive as the other words and so even alternate profanity subsitutions are not spoken or heard in our home.
Well, until this past week of course, when bullshit came to our house. :eek: 
:o
Kalhoun I think we can use “I doubt it” in public.
The relevation was one of those family moments that will always be remembered at laughed about by those that were there, and so however, hypocritical it is, it will continue to be “bullshit” when played in private at home at least for a little while.
I wonder if “bullshit” is a gateway word? heh
Juanita Tech I agree with pepperlandgirl “Oh my gosh!” is as uncomfortable for me to hear as “Oh my God!” Oddly however, I am not uncomfortable with hearing or saying, “Oh my goodness.”
I would NOT mind if the kids substituted words for the cussing.
Their two favorite words are fuck and fagot. I have tried using substitute words for them and they haven’t caught on. It is to the point where they are cussing and I don’t think they even realize it.
I refuse to let them listen to music with cuss words but I know they do it behind my back.
I personally don’t cuss so they are getting this from the outside world. <sigh>
I hate IT!!! Very occasionally I’ll spout off the “f” word, but only to myself and only under situations that warrant a more “shocking” word, like a large metal cake pan just fell on my head from the freezer!! Or some idiot just cut me off nearly causing an accident (even then I’m likely to say “YOU IDIOT” instead of some swear word).
I also have no trouble with it when it’s used in an artistic setting and fits in with the plot and what is happening to the characters. Example, you’re about to be eaten by a large slimy beast, or are crashing in a 747. THAT would be the time to yell “OH S**T”!!!
I’ve heard people saying that “f**k you” is merely a “mild rebuke” at best. If someone says that to me, I feel it as if it were a verbal “slap in the face”. It sounds harsh, violent, hateful and hatING to me.
IMHO? Some people use this language as part of their everyday vocabulary, hence it doesn’t mean anything to them at all. The “f” word is nothing more than saying “oh rats” to them.
But, they tend to forget that some of us DO find it highly offensive and ugly.
I wish it (the tendency to view “f**k” and other words like it as “merely” an descriptive word) would go away.
I also don’t understand why intelligent people with remarkable vocabularies would think it preferable to actually USING one’s brain to think up descriptive language instead. It’s as if, even if a person HAS the intelligence and the vocabulary, they’re too lazy.
Heh, I use “the f-word” so casually that I have to get extremely creative when I really want to shock somebody. Of course, whenI truly want to ream somebody out and cut them down, I don’t use profanity at all. It’s more fun to make people cry without resorting to filthy language.
Now, my husband on the other hand, hates it when I swear, and he never swears himself. He’s given up trying ot make me change my ways though, because I like the word, and I like to use it. However, whenever he actually says “fuck” I freeze. He never, ever says it unless he’s truly angry about something.
I only swear for effect. If I’m hurt, you won’t see me going off on a rampage. But if I want to put a lot of emphasis on something, I’ll swear pretty bad. For instance:
“That was a great game”
“That game was fucking great”
Number 2 usually gets a good laugh, whereas Number 1 just gets across how I feel. Never overuse the words, and they will treat you well.
When I’m on my own, I have a filthy mouth. And even filthier brain. But no one I know would believe it, because I manage to control it very well with others around.
I never swear around my parents or anyone in my family, but I will do it around friends and well-known co-workers. I feared receiving big punishment for swearing as a child, and as I got older there never came a time where it seemed like it would be okay to start swearing or that I was finally declared old enough to be allowed to use profanity, so to this day I refrain from saying such words in the presence of family members. It just wouldn’t seem right to do it after all these years. I’m sure they all probably know I swear anyway, since they all know I have a bad temper and little patience with a lot of things.
I used to swear a whole lot, but after my two-year-old dropped a toy, looked up at her grandmother with the sweetest little expression, and said, “Shit,” I reformed. Immediately. I still swear under my breath in traffic (I try to keep it under my breath, anyway), but we don’t use bad language in our household, not because I’m offended by it, but because I don’t want the children to use it. I also think it’s better to be able to react to situations without using profanity, since so many people are offended by it. It’s better to refrain from swearing altogether until you know who minds and who doesn’t.
That said, I can still curse like a sailor, nay, a Marine when the situation seems to call for it.