Out of the (foul) mouths of babes...

C_Mababejive

I was i a public building this morning waiting my turn for an appointment. Behind me was sat a woman with a young girl . Im not good at guessing childrens ages but she must have been about 3 or 4. Anyway, suddenly i heard the child say to the mother "shut up". I was a little taken aback but a minute or two later this was followed up by the child telling the mother to "(text removed by MSE Forum Team)". The mother then started to placate her by saying she wouldnt get anything from santa,,blah blah blah.. God only knows what sort of home she comes from as she clearly must have been repeating what she has heard being said there.

McKneff

A lot of the bairns don't stand a chance in life.....


I once was upstairs on a but and the little girl in front of me was with her presumably her dad, she dropped her bar of chocolate and screamed at the top of her voice 'Ive dropped me (text removed by MSE Forum Team) Kit Kat....

Oblivion

Sadly it will always be the same until science comes up with a sure fire way to eliminate the dregs from the gene pool.

Hedgehog99

The most disgusting thing ever said to me (which i won't repeat here even with hyphens) was said out of the blue by a kid who can't have been more than nine and who was a complete stranger to me.

The thing is, the shock factor, and therefore the point of swearing has disappeared. I regularly hear (text removed by MSE Forum Team) as often as I hear "like": it's just throwaway teen-speak, used while their brain catches up with what they're trying to say.

Those of us who still find swearing by strangers in public without a good excuse shocking are, it seems, in the minority.

Swearing used to be an extremely rare release of frustration or pain.

Now they'll have to find a new word because even those that used to be the most unacceptable ones seem to be common throwaway ones these days.

Oblivion

Hedgehog99 wrote: »

Those of us who still find swearing by strangers in public without a good excuse shocking are, it seems, in the minority.

Swearing used to be an extremely rare release of frustration or pain.

Now they'll have to find a new word because even those that used to be the most unacceptable ones seem to be common throwaway ones these days.

How true. Sadly the inarticulate shall inherit the earth ... not much hope for the human species methinks.

no1catman

Oblivion wrote: »

Sadly it will always be the same until science comes up with a sure fire way to eliminate the dregs from the gene pool.

Unfortunately, the reverse is more likely, with some making a career out of having babies.

meritaten

I was on a bus and this woman came on and settled her two kids on the seat in front of me and herself and shopping on the seat in front of them. She proceeded to pass them small bottles of bright red and green pop and packets of Cronster Munch. I sort of cringed - I knew what would happen! and it did - the kids just went nuts! it ended up with one of them throwing up - did it faze the mother? naw - she just shouted and swore at them - because they were interfering with her TXTing and chatting with her friends on the moby! The Driver pointed out her kid had thrown up - and she laughed and just got off the bus saying its not her problem! luckily she took the kids with her!

dinglefoot

Unfortunately I've witnessed many children with this kind of behaviour

DH and I swear quite casually at home, as we work in an office environment where that is the norm, but as soon as we have children that's going to change as I'm not having my children swear...I'd be so embarassed!

Pyxis

dinglefoot wrote: »

Unfortunately I've witnessed many children with this kind of behaviour

DH and I swear quite casually at home, as we work in an office environment where that is the norm, but as soon as we have children that's going to change as I'm not having my children swear...I'd be so embarassed!

The trouble is this, ^^^^^^^ I'm afraid.

If it's the norm for adults, then sadly, it will become the norm for children.

And another thing.....TV says that it only reflects what society does. That may be true, but it has a cyclic effect.......the more that casual swearing is heard on TV, the more it becomes ' normal' to hear it, and the more people will swear in conversations. Then the amount heard on TV wil increase.....and so on and so on.


If you don't want your children to swear, then the whole cultural acceptance of swearing has to change. The 'norm' of swearing in the office or at home has to change.


What's also interesting is the number of foreigners here to learn English who have said that they are appalled at the amount of serious swear words they hear native British people using, particularly in public. Quite shaming, really.

pollypenny

When I first saw the film 'East is East' I was shocked at the casual swearing in the streets and shops. I didn't think it would have been the norm in any working class neighbourhood in the 50s.

It certainly was not in the Rhondda, but something that men did in work. An older colleague who was brought up in Salford confirmed that the first he heard casual swearing was in the army on National Service.

One deputy head told us to turn a deaf ear to swearing in the corridor. Hmmm.

How times have changed!

lisa110rry

I don't think in 38 years of marriage I have heard my husband swear more than half a dozen times and those times would be as a "jerk" reaction to pain (working on the car back in the 80s springs to mind).

I'm one of those people who "calls" young people if they casually swear in front of me. Our son and daughter-in-law don't swear in public or in front of us and I don't expect to hear it from strangers.

And although there's quite a lot of casual swearing on a construction project, I've always had an agreement that if I went toward the "construction" end of the project offices I would be deaf to swearing but if the guys were near my office they would not swear. I even remember a Construction Manager telling off a labourer for swearing outside my office "because there's a lady present".