[photo source: swearing]



I gave up watching Friends years ago when it moved to 8:00 p.m. EST, because there were words in it I didn't want my two year old adding to his vocabulary. It was a sacrifice, but was easier than trying to figure out how to program the VCR to tape it and finding the time to watch it later.

My husband and I monitered television programs, movies and sanitized our own speech to keep our kids from being the potty mouthed preschoolers of the playground. Our oldest son will turn 13 next month, and we're starting to think perhaps we kept things a little TOO clean.

Camper has an annoying habit of widening his eyes to twice their size if an adult uses a mild oath in his presence. My husband's friend said something about the "damn traffic" and from his expression, the boy expected a lighting strike right then and there. Last night he gigglingly reported that his Basketball Coach said they had played "a helluva game" and acted much like a preschooler when someone says the word "butt".

When I was a kid, there was no swearing on television but I learned all the profanity I use so creatively today (when away from children) by hanging out in the shed with my grandfather and his fellow farmers. No one gave a thought to toning down their speech in front of little girls, but my sister and I sensed these were not words to use in front of our mom. My husband jokingly suggested having a weekend swear-a-thon, but I'm sure what the hell we should do. Parenting is damn tricky!

by Susie Sunshine via Creative Reporter
She swears like a drunken sailor on her blog The Underpaid Kept Woman, the irony of which is not lost on her.