Potty Mouth Parents

I'm not saying I don't swear. In fact if you were to know me in high school, you would be amazed to talk to me now! In high school, my most favorite word ever was the "F" word. Now I have to say that it is the one I hate the most!!!

The minute I found out I was pregnant with Kaelin (aka: The moment parenting begins) I swore to start watching my mouth. To this day I can say that it's very rare any swear words come out of my mouth inside my house...at least while my children are around. Even when my children aren't around my potty mouth is almost non existent. The "F" word is almost non existent in my vocabulary. Why? Honestly step back and listen to someone who drops the "F" bomb every two minutes, or even drops any swear words constantly. Now what do you think? Does that person sound intelligent? If you didn't know the person, is it now someone you want to meet? What if they use that language around your children? Now what if your child repeats it?

We're giving the double standard here. We want our children to learn new words, but if they repeat what they hear, and that happens to be a swear word we yell at them. Now I'm not saying Kaelin hasn't heard me swear, I've had my slip ups...no mother is perfect. In fact she has repeated after me. I don't laugh though, I don't yell at her...I ignore it, and feel horribly guilty. Children are so pure and we pollute them with our foul mouthed behavior. I grew up in a house that swearing was a second language. Not in a bad way, my parents have a wonderful marriage, I can only be so lucky to have what that have. Honestly though swearing wasn't uncommon, do I feel like it harmed me? Not at all. Do I think people who decide to swear in front of their children are bad parents...nope. I just would like people to ponder our ease of use of profanities.

One of my true pet peeves is when people on "Social Networking" sites use profanity in their status updates. If you are having a bad day...I don't hold it against you. I COMPLETELY get it, I know there are better ways to express yourself, but sometimes you just want to get it off your chest. Other times you have the people who just use it to use it. This is an annoyance to me. Enough that I decide I don't want to follow your updates. I can promise that the people that use curse words in their status updates frequently are probably using them twice as much in the home environment.

Let me give you some examples of why if overused this language is just not as effective. Go read I don't know, lets say the first 6 chapters of "The Di Vinci Code", now go read the first 6 chapters of "The Last Templar". Very similar books, though not about the same thing the two authors are writing about the same historic groups. I will tell you I could not stand Khoury's book. Why? His use of profanities. Honestly once you use them so much they just don't have the same effect. If you're using the "F" word when your character is just thinking and then use it again when he's yelling at someone...over and over and over. It's dull...the word has lost it's excitement, lost it's pizzazz! You could have just put "the" in it's place and have the same reaction from me! However when Brown writes he's a genius!! When he swears you know exactly how he means it!!

No I will not find it funny if your son or daughter repeats these on a daily basis. If you laugh your children think that it's funny and start to use it as a source of either attention or amusement. Yes it is funny if they are TRYING to say something else but it sounds like profanity. Why is this funny and the other not? Because your child isn't aware of what they are saying, what they mean to be saying is purely innocent, as opposed to actually cursing.

On a closing note-even if you don't have children try to start watching your mouth now, if you really don't care...so be it. Just honestly we as a society use these words far too often therefore they no longer have the passion they were intended for! We've become numb to these words that at one time would've caused an uproar if used inappropriately! Like I said I'm not immune to all of my rants. I am just as guilty, look at prior posts...there are swear words. It's a work in progress, but it's an easy change in your life that can make a big difference in how people perceive you!