My Kid Swears ~A Lot~ — But Only At Home. Can I Just Let It Slide?
How to handle your little foulmouth, according to experts.
We’ve all been there: You drop something, it breaks, and you shout, “Sh*t!” only to realize your kids and their big ears are nearby. In my house, the swear jar is almost exclusively filled by me. Miraculously, my son rarely uses expletives. Maybe my use of them has dubbed them “uncool,” or maybe he just has better manners. (It happens!) Whether your kid swears in good fun or all the time, the question remains: What do you do about it, if anything?
Public behavior and private behavior can absolutely be different things. Kids understand this from a young age — it’s OK to walk around the house naked; it’s not OK to streak around the playground naked. So, in theory, if your kids are mature enough to discern the difference between dropping an f-bomb while playing a video game at home (allowed) and dropping an f-bomb in math class (definitely not allowed), they fundamentally get the difference between public and private behaviors.
