I don’t swear in front of my parents, but that’s probably because I talk to them in Korean. I wouldn’t dream of swearing in Korean, despite the fact I swear quite liberally when I talk in English.
I swear a lot when I am angry or frustrated. I don’t swear around my parents, and generally not in public. I think too much swearing is distasteful, but think some people are too uptight about it.
I do now, occasionally, as an adult, but as a kid, never. Though, once when I was 16, my mother was ragging on me. Mostly, I think, because she had a bad day and was irritated to start with and then I screwed up something minor in the kitchen and she was on about, “Blah blah blah you have to grown up, you always blah blah you never blah blah why don’t you show some responsibility…”
You know, those occasionaly semi-warrented harangues from your parents that you get as a teenager.
Well, I had a running commentary going in my head (as you do) and some how it came out of my mouth, and I said, “Bitch.”
To my mother. I thought I was dead. I was sure I was dead. My mother in a towering rage is frightening, and when I was a kid, it usually ended in pain.
But Mom started to laugh. She thought I was joking. It took me five minutes to breathe properly again.
It was just a couple of years ago (I’m 38) that I had the guts to bring it up again. She’d forgotten about it. I neverever will.
(And, at the time, I probably wasn’t kidding.)
Cheers,
G
A little bit, and it’s increasing. It started about 4 years ago, when i was 20. I figure I’m an adult, and they’re adults, so there’s no reason to avoid it. But it does tend to only happen when i’m angry or excited.
Fucking no. I swear to hell I would never swear around my goddamn fucking mother.
I’m kidding. I swear around her all the time. She’s not that hung up on words. Unless they’re meant in malice I don’t think there’s such a thing as a bad word.
And mom does’t swear that much but I’d say my mom is ok with it.
It was a slow progression, but now I am 20 and they don’t care.
I accidentally said ‘ass’ at a family gathering when I was 12 or 13 (had been cussing fluently since I was 10 or so) and everyone thought my face afterwards was more funny than anything because I was terrified. Did not get in trouble.
I just slowly started swearing in front of my parents, first only when I was understandably angry and used less severe words…and now I say pretty much anything except words like cunt in front of the parentals. My parents aren’t uptight so it’s not a big deal. I speak like a sailor anyway so it would come out accidentally no matter what.
The most I say around my parents is damn or hell. Both of them swear a lot and always have, while, once I got over an early-teens preoccupation with saying words I “wasn’t supposed” to say, I reserved swear words for times of great anger or other suitable emotions. In other words, I don’t swear much when I’m not around them, and that doesn’t change when I am with them.
I swear as much around my parents as I do around anyone else–rather liberal sprinklings of “damn” and “hell”, occasional "ass"es and "bastard"s, rarely anything stronger than that.
However, everyone in my family has a profound, undying love for “shit”. It is the exclamation of choice when pretty much anything “slightly unpleasant” and worse happens.
Oh - talking about the swear words themselves has held up a mirror to myself - I actually do swear a lot (the shit, damn, hells, etc.), just not the big guns. I try to save those in reserve for the occasions that warrant an increase in hostilities.
HazelNutCoffee, I remember my Chinese friends in high school talking absolutely shockingly around their parents in English; I’m guessing that they didn’t talk to them the same way in Chinese. 
I’m not a big swearer in general - I don’t use colorful language to spic up my every day speech. I’ll swear if I injure myself or something really annoying happens that momentarily overloads my brain circuits. I wouldn’t feel weird if I swore in that situation around my parents. I have used the f-word years ago with my parents when the occasional screaming match would occur but in that case the impropriety of using swear words was grossly overshadowed by whatever the argument was about.
That said, I do feel weird drinking around my parents, or talking about drinking. And even though I’m no longer vegetarian, I don’t eat meat around them just in case I ever want to go back to it, I’d rather they still be used to making me vegetarian food.
I am self conscious using swear words around my father’s side of the family because they make a big deal about it, especially my aunt, who glares at me if I even say “hell”. I’m not sure how much of that is actual indignation and how much of it is just teasing me, but it’s still unwanted attention so I avoid it.
When I was younger, no swearing at all in the house. I was actually taught that “darn” was too strong.
As we’ve all gotten older (the youngest child is 20) there’s been a commensurate escalating of the swearing. My dad will now say “fuck” in front of me. I’ve used that one a couple of times around my mom but it seems to bother her so I mostly don’t.
However, the Schedule II swearwords (shit, asshole, bastard, etc.) are used by parents and children judiciously but as necessary - ie, we won’t pepper a conversation with them (unless we’re really mad) but we won’t suppress them either.
I too have had the moments of explaining things like “feltching” so I just don’t go there.
(Mom’s a Catholic schoolgirl from western Penn who’s highly inquisitive. When I was forced during a move she was helping with to tell her I had a vibrator, her response was: “You’ve got a vibrating penis? Let me see!..It’s a little small, isn’t it?” And Dad’s the only person she’s slept with. Thanks for the visual, Mom! :smack: )
I most certainly do and I enjoy that they really can’t say a thing about it since I’m 43 fucking years old. I swear in front of my child also and tell him they’re home words. Recently I was in the car with my mom and son and there was some dumbass old battle axe driver doing…something…I don’t know what she thought she was trying to accomplish. So I yelled, “Bitch! What the fuck???” My son thought I was going to get in trouble with my mom and said, “Grammy, are you going to get mom in trouble?” My mother told him I was too old for her to say anything. So…next time I’m driving with her someone’s getting called a cow-cunt.
Hell no. I generally try not to swear around people whom I know it will offend (a group which essentially consists of my parents and people who go to the same church as my parents).
To give you an idea of the kind of language I grew up listening to the strongest words I have ever heard my father utter are ‘crap’
and ‘pissed’, both of which are spoken in a hushed voice just in case someone with delicate ears is listening.
My mom had a rule when I was growing up: People have the choice to swear all they want, but she has the choice not to have to listen to it. So I reserved my swearing for around my friends.
However, in recent years she’s sent me all kinds of dirty jokes and has apparently relaxed her stance considerably. We all still apologize if we say, “Oh, shit!” in front of her, though, just from longstanding habit.
Rarely, but then I rarely cuss in general. I was probably in my 30’s before I swore in front of Dad, but when it happens it’s natural and it gets no reaction from either of us.
When visiting my grandparents last month, I was playing cards with Grandpa and casually said “shit”. Everyone in the house knew about it within 15 seconds. So, no more of that!
Minor swear words, yes. Fuck never. God Damn (well I don’t use that in my daily life much) never.
I don’t say anything worse than “hell” or “damn”, which is pretty much all I’ve ever heard them say. I expect the same from my kids (and usually get it). I realize they hear worse every day, but I figure they should be able to exercise some self-control when needed. The worst they or anyone has ever heard me say is “shit”.
When I was about sixteen I said “Shit!” in front of my dad. He paused, and said something like, “I guess you’re old enough I don’t need to tell you not to say that anymore.” I agreed, but did try to watch my mouth around him anyway. Until the next year when he died unexpectedly, anyway. But not from the shock of hearing his baby girl swear in front of him, I swear!
My mom and I swear in front and (sometimes, mostly in jest) at each other, but we’re both adults.
I’m glad to know I am not the only one who is reserved about using profanity in the presence of my parents. I’ve never said so much as “hell” or “damn” around them in all my 37 years. As a kid I knew these and other swear words were not to ever be spoken and doing so would result in punishment. As I got older there never seemed to be a time where I felt comfortable or confident enough to say such words with impunity. It’s not like your parents suddenly grant you permission to swear or tell you, for example, that at age 10 you can say “damn” and “hell” but nothing more, at age 12 you can say “shit”, at age 14 you can say “asshole”, and at 16 you can say “fuck.” My older sisters never swear around my parents, either, so they didn’t give me much guidance for feeling comfortable about it.
My mother never swears (as far as I know), and my dad only says “hell”, “damn” and the occasional “shit”. I’m always taken aback somewhat when I am around other people who openly swear around their parents and vice versa.
My younger sister swears a lot (quantity and dirtiness) around everyone, including my mom. Last Christmas she (my sister) got a new nickname - Cursor, the Potty-mouthed Reindeer.