A very long time ago, when I was about seven or eight years old, and my brother was about four or five, the two of us were in the family room together, playing with our spirographs.
(For those of you that don’t know, the spirograph was a toy that let you draw geometric curves and spiral designs using all sorts of little plastic templates.)
So my brother and I are drawing away, and my mother stops in the doorway to watch us play. It’s the perfect, idyllic family scene.
My five-year-old brother makes a mistake, and his pen skids across the page. Without missing a beat, he calmly says “fuck” to himself and then realigns his pen to his template.
My mother was laughing too hard to get angry, and so he didn’t get scolded for it. He was just told not to use that word again. (The first time I said “fuck” I got a very angry lecture.)
We have no idea where he picked it up. There wasn’t so much swearing on TV back in those days; I wasn’t allowed to swear in the house; and it’s hard to believe his friends in pre-school were using it.
He skipped “damn” and “shit” too, and went straight for the gold on his first try.
I curse rather than swear. Any co-worker is more likely to hear “God-damned” or “what the hell” from my desk than anything.
When I was younger I used more contemporary invective, but I found that overuse diminishes effectiveness.
I have raised my daughters to not swear unless the situation really calls for it (such as dropping an hammer on your foot) or it is funny.
It’s funny - I would never swear in Korean. It just seems extremely vulgar and unnecessary. But I swear pretty casually in English. I think I picked up the habit in grad school.
I have some friends who are the same way (swear in English but not in Korean). Swearing just seems a lot less socially acceptable in Korean for some reason.
I swear in Hindi and in English, depending on my mood and the setting, but I generally swear mildly. This has the added bonus that when I do swear seriously, people sit up and pay attention.
When I came back from Ireland I blistered paint at 50 yards and didn’t even realize it. I went straight onto a dig site and the first week my friend (who swore very liberally himself, even for an archy) said to me “You really have quite the pottymouth.”
I never really thought about it much but I have a completely different way of talking when I’m at work vs with friend vs with kids.
A couple years ago we decided my daughter was old enough to join us on chick outings. Apparently that was the key in my head to switch conversation styles with her from with kids to with friends. I found myself apologizing to her a few times as she stared at me in shock. She’s used to it now. I’m not sure if that’s good or bad.
I don’t think I swear much here but I wouldn’t be willing to bet any cash on it
Hell fucking yeah. And people are always surprised.
I’ve picked up a bunch of euphemisms for use around children and my mom - most of them from 90s cartoons (Awww, fudge monkeys!), but I swear a lot, at least when I’m by myself.
OP, you do realize most people don’t keep track of when and where they use profanity, right? For most people it’s not a remarkable or unusual occurrence. I do remember once trying to spell “asshole” on one of those Speak-N-Spell things when I was around 5, so if that counts, maybe it was the first time.
