Parents Swear, So WTF Does it Mean?

by ParentCo. January 07, 2016

It can be tricky to express our full range of adult emotions - especially as we navigate the eternal shitshow that is parenting - without incorporating expletives.

See? I can barely write a sentence without using one. And it's trickier still when our children are within earshot. We walk the line between being reasonable role models using appropriate language and the actual truth of being a fallible human. The car is a common battleground of language. Mostly because a lot of music - good, funky, rock-out with your kids music - is punctuated with the very language we might otherwise avoid using. But maybe that's ok. As Jeff Vrabel (@jeffvrabel) writes in his Washington Post piece:
Look, parenting is a lot of work, and I don’t have the bandwidth to deal with bad words, because in addition to serving as primary male role model to two entirely separate humans I’ve apparently turned into the sort of indigestible twit who uses words like “bandwidth.” I have a lot to think about besides iTunes.
What about letting it go entirely, just letting fly? Like the author of this excellent and hilarious Scary Mommy blog post by Kate Levkoff (@Nursingcursing), I spent a few months imprisoned in that special hell of owing my kids a quarter each time they heard a swear leave my lips. Besides the absurdity of handing over nearly all of my money, I was being policed by CHILDREN. Wait. WHAT? I'm an adult parent living a grown-up life. I've earned my swears. Dammit.
Source: washingtonpost.com



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