When Toddlers Curse

[Francis Hult]

New York Times

 

When Toddlers Curse

 

Lisa Belkin

 

Earlier in the week I wrote about the absurdity of referring to the "dam" on a camp lake (you know, the kind built to hold water) as the "darn" by counselors, lest the campers hear a word that might sound like a curse. 

 

But what are the limits on language we use in front of our children? 

 

It was not until I was an adult that I ever heard my parents say a four-letter word. In my naivete I more or less believed they were old fogies who didn't know things like that. My teenagers have no such illusions. I try not to swear in front of them, with a good deal of success (I tend not to have much of a potty mouth as the spectrum goes, believing, as a writer, that curses are a crutch and there are much more evocative words in the English language). But I have "lost it" in anger. 

 

Full story:

http://parenting.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/02/when-toddlers-curse/?hp

_______________________________________________
Edling mailing list
Edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu
https://lists.sis.utsa.edu/mailman/listinfo/edling
List Manager: Francis M. Hult