I’m almost 45, and I still don’t use the heavy-hitters in front of my mom - she just doesn’t like it, and I respect her wishes.
When I got too big to spank.
The last time Mom used the yardstick on me was when I tore it out of her hands and used it on her.
She wisely learned that I had come of age.
If I say something sucks, I am admonished to not use my “college language” around her. Away from my parents I swear a lot and in great volume.
Never. Just doesn’t feel right. She’s not the type to get offended over it, though. My brother swears in front of her all the time, after all–but I can’t help but wince every time he does. I couldn’t dream of swearing in front of them. Just seems to be something you just don’t do.
- Never
- Never
- Never
I don’t cuss, and neither does my father. OTOH, it’s pretty much always been O.K. for my mother to cuss in front of me, and she has a rather colorful vocabulary.
I was out of the house before I said ‘damn’ in my mother’s hearing. I’ll occasionally let slip a ‘shit’. But I do most of my cursing in Italian and that doesn’t bother her at all. She actually thinks it’s funny.
I didn’t cuss in front of my Dad until my first visit after my first divorce. It was like he expected it and didn’t even blink.
I save the harsher cursing (in English) for outside their hearing. Mom doesn’t approve of the harsher cursing and I’ll respect that in her house, even if my brother doesn’t.
My own kids are over 18 now, but when they tried to start cussing when they were younger, I told them they couldn’t use the word if they couldn’t tell me what it meant, where it came from and why it was considered a naughty word. Even then they couldn’t use it outside of the house until they were 16 or I would pawn their electronics.
My mom didn’t let us use “sucks” or “crap” growing up, in addition to “oh my G-d” and the usual suspects.
I’m 24 and will use both “sucks” and “crap” in front of her now. She doesn’t bat an eyelash. I’ll use both of those plus “ass” and its variants with my dad. I don’t use “oh my G-d” for my own reasons. All other words I don’t use with my parents or anyone else except in the car by myself, where I will curse a blue streak (I have some road rage issues). I have very occasionally used “shit” or “damn” plus variants with certain friends, but not the f-bomb. None of my friends are really the type to drop a lot of swear words, so it gives off a bad impression.
I used to swear a lot in high school because I thought it was cool. Then it just started seeming pointless, so I stopped.
Probably when my mom started cussing in front of me. I was in my mid-twenties and going through a divorce when I heard my mom cuss for the first time. She called my ex a bastard, and I laughed because it was so shocking.
Now we both let loose with some profanity at hockey games. She’ll immediately apologize for cussing but do it again a few minutes later. A few “dammits” and “what the hell” when appropriate. I would never use the f-bomb in front of Mom, nor would I take the Lord’s name in vain around her.
It was never okay to swear in front of my mother. I was in my early 40s when she died. It became okay in front of my father (ONLY if there were no women present) once I had moved out of the house and gotten a job, which made me a real man in his eyes.
I picked up swearing when I was in junior high school because I thought it made me sound grown-up. I pretty much stopped when I was in my 20s because I thought it made me sound immature. I only do it now when I can’t come up with a better word.
I only cussed in front of my mother one time in 25 years we spent together and it was when I was in labor.
I apologized almost immediately.
It just wasn’t done. We were very close and she was an easy-going woman but there was something wrong about even saying silly words like “fart” around her. She might have not even minded but I just couldn’t do it.
Probably sometime in my teens? I honestly cannot remember. Even then, it kind of graduated from “damn”, or “hell” to full on “shit”, and f-bombs. (I do remember getting in trouble for calling her a bitch to her face several times when I was thirteen)
However, even though she didn’t punish me, my mother still complains that I swear too much. Because I swear too “casually”, not just when I’m mad. Oh Mother!
It would never be okay for me to cuss in front of my parents, but I’d just get a quiet verbal reminder to be careful.
My parents probably thought I would cuss from time to time, starting in high school, but I don’t like to swear. Dad always said it was a sign of a lazy mind to use standard swear words, so I get creative and say what I really mean when it comes up.
Haven’t got to that point yet.
Probably about 13 or 14, except for the big F. That my sister tried once and I thought my father was going to kill her right there.
I used the F word in front of my mom when I was 16 once. She slapped me. So that one’s off limits.
I will occasionally say “shit” in front of them, which is generally accepted. I was in my early 20s when that started. I’ve noticed a marked change in psychological leverage since I’ve moved out, and they’ve all together stopped rebuking my language. Still, I don’t think I’ll push my luck, out of respect.
All the “lesser” swear words (damn, ass, bastard) have been okay since my early teens.
I’m 48. I have never cussed in front of my parents. In our household “butt” was considered a cuss word.
- Never
- I wouldn’t allow my parents to “punish” me once I was about 16.
- ~12. I resisted for about a year in Boy Scouts, but then said what the fuck.
My mom is not typical, and neither is our history together so I had some spells with other relatives stepping into parental roles for me.
When my older sister went away to college it was as if my mom had no more energy to hold it all together. She stopped not cussing in front of me so I took that to mean it was okay for me to cuss in front of her. I was fourteen, and punishments weren’t really happening by then. I started working that year and we didn’t even really interact that much.
My aunt & uncle are like parents to me. I would never curse in front of them. I firmly believe they don’t curse in front of each other.
Cussing in general? I feel as if playground conversations got a little peppery starting around 4th or 5th grade. Not long ago I went to a movie with a woman I’d been in grade school with. Some 12 or 13 year old boys sat down in front of us and were cursing a blue streak. I asked her why it was bugging me since I knew we had used a few of those words at their age. She agreed that we had, but never, ever, not even once within earshot of a grownup.
Count me as another one who never cusses in front of my mother. Which is funny, because she swears a blue streak at the drop of the hat.
My lack of cussing in front of my mom is more my dad’s doing than anything else. He didn’t like swear words and didn’t like us kids swearing and I took that to heart. I would feel strange if I started swearing in front of her now.