So I'm not a fan of swearing, admittedly there have been drunken nights where I've sworn a lot, but I find myself very much hating it in my more mature years.
I once had a conversation about why the C word (the one that rhymes with BLUNT) has just become this big issue and listened to a colleagues opinion that, at the end of the day it is just a word! The only reason it offends so many is because so many people have given it the power to offend them. Now for me this word has awful memories of watching violent abusive arguments between my Mum and her husband and so it will never enter my brain without bringing negative and possibly fearful emotions with it, and so I can understand I am in fact giving that word power to affect me and so it does.
Asking on my Facebook page about swearing habits and feelings about swearing, brought out many opinions and I may well be more touchy about swearing than I should be, but yesterday I was witness to several mothers in a crowded area using many many profanities, in earshot of lots of children and adults. I try hard not to judge as I'm sure we all do, but I will be honest I'm sure we all pass judgement on those around us based on the things we hear and see. And so yesterday I found myself judging harshly the parent who audibly and loudly exclaimed 'F**k this I'm not standing around here, I don't have the F-ing time or patience' which gained raucous laughter from the 4 or 5 other mums who had been swearing along in a previous conversation.
Now no one was hurt, the world didn't end but I found myself really offended, and I wasn't alone, but I cant explain why it bothered me so much, my children were not with me but I felt it was very disrespectful. My Nana spent her adult life working in a not exactly genteel public house and so heard the foulest of language, it never shocked her and never made her outwardly judge anyone, but it also never made her swear! Had she still been alive and been standing with me yesterday I would have been upset at her being faced with that language but she probably wouldn't have been. Am I being too touchy should I not let it bother me or is it simply the context and location of the conversation. If I'm standing in my child's school listening to loud conversations peppered with profanity, about hating being there is it the subject matter or the language that bothered me?
Do you swear, how would you feel if your children did? Am I being a snob to expect folk not to swear around their own and other peoples children in a place of education? What do you think ?
Ive been brought up not to swear. My mam and dad don't and people who know them respect them enough to swear round them. I don't swear public especially round children I don't think there is a need. I do however have slips around my friends.
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