Four Letter Words

Our Saturday paper had an article entitled, "Doggone it, it's hard to be a non-swearing parent," written by Felix Carroll with the Albany Times Union. This saint and his wife have actually managed to put their swearing on hold around their kids. They admit to using certain language with each other, often in the form of name-calling, but not in front of the kids. I was amazed. My friend Beth at Books etc. has admitted she swears like a sailor and has no intention of stopping. (Love that!) I have tried myself but with little success. Riley automatically knows what words he can or can't say. He was a late talker, well into the age of two, but once he started he had amassed a large and sophisticated vocabulary. In the early years I often fretted over the very real possibility his first word would be the "s" word in front of Grandma (who uses it rather frequently herself I'll add). I am guilty of using not only the "s" word, but the "f" word as well as "g-d". But I don't stop there. I also am known to string them together in very quick sequence such as "g-d" "b" "m-f" and other variations thereof. Tsk, tsk. I hope my son doesn't start swearing like me at any time in his life. Usually I find it inelegant and coarse when someone else is doing it. Not the odd word, but the ones at high volume or the strung together ones. I guess it's time to clean up my act. At least in front of the kids.