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Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Kids, teens cussing more: Guess whose fault it is?
They’re dropping F bombs at school and at church, but guess who they’re picking that language up from?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Experts call it “conversational swearing” and they say preteens and teens are cussing more than the generation before them. Apparently, teens are having a harder time switching gears between talking with their friends and talking with adults, and cuss words are slipping out in all kinds of conversations. Read the full story.
Timothy Jay, a psychology professor at the Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts and a leading scholar of cursing in the United States, estimates that teens use 80 to 90 swear words a day.
“ ‘Elementary … teachers report that children are using more offensive language at school than they have in the past,’ said Jay.”
“He said the Internet, TV and other media may be making adolescents more comfortable with swearing, but their parents’ own language habits are the biggest influence.”
” ‘It starts as soon as they learn how to talk,’ he said. ‘At a young age, they’re attentive to emotions. When you’re swearing to be funny or when you’re angry that just draws them right to it.’ ”
I have to admit to being a terrible cusser. There’s no way I am saying 80 to 90 bad words a day, but I do spout my fair share. I did pick the habit up from my dad and my brother. I rarely take the Lord’s name in vain, but I drop F all the time. I have slightly modified it to “freakin,” or “F-in,” but it’s just as terrible. I am truly trying to work on it because I don’t want the kids to pick it up.
How about you? Do you curse: at work, at home, in front of the kids? Do your kids, teen cuss? Do you punish them for it? What is your general punishment for bad language? How do parents break the bad habit of cussing when they have kids?
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