Today’s society sees swearing as a common and generally accepted side-effect of communication, losing most or all of its shock value.
Growing up in my household, cursing and swearing was a terrible thing, always swiftly and effectively punished.
Either a spanking, having my mouth washed out with soap or a timeout in my room could be expected from a little slip-up. A long lecture from my mother could also be anticipated and, being a child at the time, was probably the worst punishment of all.
I had things to do. Important things, like exploring, playing, getting hurt and causing mischief.
A lecture from my mom was usually something along the lines of, “people who need to resort to swearing aren’t using the intelligence that they are given.”
In this, I agree. It takes nothing to throw out a swear word here or there and it is usually not even used in the right context.
I mean come on. Eff this, eff that? Go eff myself? I don’t think that’s really possible. Be more inventive for eff’s sake.
That’s not to say that I’m not guilty of it myself. I swear like a filthy sailor on the best of days.
I just find it odd, and a little anger-inducing, that society has accepted this as a norm. We’ve come from the days of our grandparents and great-grandparents, and even some of our childhoods, where swearing was something terrible that needed to be reprimanded.
Today it doesn’t seem like that’s the case.
I see young kids running around all the time cussing, and I can’t help but think, “Is this something your parents allow? Do they not care that their children are growing up like this? Do you even know what you’re saying?”
Do we really want our children growing up thinking that swearing is an acceptable form of communication?
I certainly wouldn’t be letting my kids get away with it.