Little Kids and Cussing on TV

[Sandra Craft]

Tank, you're one of my new favorite fucking people.

I agree that words have meaning, but I don't think that's the point of that episode.  The F word doesn't seem to have much real meaning to a 2 year old, other than they know that it's "bad".  But IME, the more you react to it, the more they realize that it's a powerful word, and the more likely they are to use it again.  If you just calmly say "That's not a nice word, we don't use that word", that seems more effective.  

In my opinion this forum is nothing but a coven of shrieking, disease-riddled morons.  (And I didn't use a single cuss word!)

You're right about the episode --it's an adult-oriented show, and the kid doesn't actually swear (she says "fudge" and her mouth is pixalated and the word bleeped to suggest the little tot said fuck).  The comedy was supposed to be in her parents dealing with the common, awkward situation of a child innocently doing something considered inappropriate among adults.  Of course, when you have to explain it . . .

Of course, when I said "That's not a nice word, we don't use that word" my son came back with "Daddy does!" 

My funny cussing story does not involve a child, but my Dad, whom I heard swear only twice in my life and both times it was well deserved.  One of them was at the reception after my brother and sister-in-law's wedding.  Dad had just met my brother's new father-in-law for the first time, came back to the table where his wife and I were sitting, looked at us in disbelief and said, "what an asshole!"  I nearly choked on my salad.

[Tank]

It's just a word, people really need to grow up.

Words are symbols of meaning, they convey information, emotional intent etc. To say "It's just a word." is to obviate the purpose of the written language. If words held no transmittable meaning "You miserable fucking cunt!" would be no different from "I love you!".

Yes, words have meanings, I'm not nor will I ever dispute that. It seems very silly to me that you would even bring that up. Now the second thing you said demonstrates my point against words just being words. My issue is that people aren't throwing up a hissy fit over the meaning of the word, but the word itself. It's when people make a big stink over the word "shit" but not not "crap", "poop" or "feces". It's not the meaning people have a problem with, but the word, which I find childish, because they're just words.

Now, "you miserable fucking cunt" isn't offense because of the individual words. "You" is hardly offensive. "Miserable" is equally not offensive. "Fucking" is offensive to some, but other things that mean the same thing is not offensive to people, so again, it's the word that they find offensive, not the meaning. And "cunt" is about the same as "fucking" in terms of why people are offended by it and not the meaning. When you add them all in together, "you miserable fucking cunt" then the whole statement is only thing I can see a decent reason for people to take offense, but singling out certain words as offensive is just childish.

In the same way that "I", "love" and "you" are pretty useless on their own, but then put together describe how one feels about another, "you miserable fucking cunt" is useless unless put together to describe how one feels about another person.

In short: it's not the meaning of the words that people find offensive, apparently the only reason people find the words offensive is because people find the words offensive.

Ok. So is the word 'Glarsmit' offensive or not?

[Davin]

Ok. So is the word 'Glarsmit' offensive or not?

I don't think any words are offensive. In order for me to even think something is offensive, it would need to be more than just a word, but someone expressing that they think something offensive about me... and then it's not the word that's offensive, it's what the other person meant. Words in themselves are pieces of a thought, much like flour is pretty useless on its own but cake is a delicious lie.

[The Magic Pudding]

I used to swear as a teenager with my peers.
I'd go home and I wouldn't swear, it was switchable.
By the time I was twenty I didn't swear much.
Driving is a possible exception, it's a life and death thing.
Golf, I played golf, it's such a frustrating thing.
I don't think I sweared much at all in front of my children.
I wouldn't have liked them to swear when little.
They hardly do now, not at home anyway.

[Asmodean]

Why is it that the kids need to be protected from profanity, rather than taught to use it to better express themselves?

[Sweetdeath]

Why is it that the kids need to be protected from profanity, rather than taught to use it to better express themselves?

Probably the same reason parents lie to their kids to believe in god instead of allowing them to make their own choices.
I can give them a few keywords to google and they'll never believe in god again. XD

[Asmodean]

And what about lying to kids about the baby-making process? What's up with that? 

[Buddy]

Because, apparently words in the baby-making process are just as bad as curse words now. 

[Asmodean]

Mommy meets daddy, daddy sticks his penis into mommy's vagina. Daddy squirts some sperm into mommy. One tiny specklet meets the egg. The egg grows into a baby.

How be that uncivil in any way?  ???

[Sweetdeath]

I never understood lying about where babies come from. I'm not a parent, nor will.i ever be, but I just find that irritating as hell.

You dont even have to go into detail about sex. Just discuss sperm, fertilization , and the fetus growing in the womb.
Oh nooo, it is tooooo much for our "innocent" children. e__e

[Ali]

And what about lying to kids about the baby-making process? What's up with that? 

I think that's just an awkward thing a lot of times.  I have tried to be fairly frank with my son thus far, and not use cutesie words for his body parts.  He calls his penis a penis, because that's what it is.  Even so, I recently had a fairly awkward (for me) conversation with him.  I had just given him a bath, and he was wrapped in a big towel.  He goes "Mommy!  I'm pulling on my penis!  It feels funny!"  I hadn't really thought ahead of time what I was going to say to a penis pulling conversation with my 3 year old, so I was just making it up on the fly.  Basically, I told him that it's his penis and he's free to pull on it if he likes, but some things are done in private, such as going to the bathroom and pulling on your penis.  Then he says "Do you pull on your penis?"  Another awkward moment.  Do I really want to talk about my own habits to my 3 year old?  So I side step the question and say "Women don't have penises."  "What do they have?"  "Vaginas."  "You have a VAGINA?!?"  "Yes."  "Oh, okay."  I think I handled it okay, but it was still really embarassing for me, so I can kind of see why some people freeze and just start making stuff up.  When I went downstairs my husband was like "Was he yelling 'vagina' up there?"

[The Magic Pudding]

Why is it that the kids need to be protected from profanity, rather than taught to use it to better express themselves?

Does it help them better express themselves?
If they were taught it they'd abandon it and seek something else to offend with.

Mommy meets daddy, daddy sticks his penis into mommy's vagina. Daddy squirts some sperm into mommy. One tiny specklet meets the egg. The egg grows into a baby.

How be that uncivil in any way?  ???

I'm not sure if most pre teens would be well served by witnessing their parents going through the motions.

[Buddy]

Does it help them better express themselves?
If they were taught it they'd abandon it and seek something else to offend with.

Who knows, maybe one day dog will be a curse word.

[Davin]

Does it help them better express themselves?
If they were taught it they'd abandon it and seek something else to offend with.

Who knows, maybe one day dog will be a curse word.

And what would happen if people stopped being offended by words? Then they'd be seeking endlessly for a magical offensive word that doesn't exist. And hopefully they'd be forced to be offensive creatively.

[Ali]

By the way, what is 'Glarsmit'?