When we think about curse words, we often associate them as being “bad” or“inappropriate” because that’s what we were told as children by our parents/guardians. I’ve even heard certain parents say to their kids that they’re not allowed to use those type of words until we’re older. But, at what age can these words be deemed truly appropriate for someone to say?
A lot of people would agree that they’re reserved for people that are 18+, which is probably a good idea considering we don’t want our children running around cursing at others left and right. But what about when we become teenagers? They might not seem interested in using them at 13, but at 16, I believe it almost becomes second nature to them to use these words as an expression of anger like most people do. However, if they do use them at that age then I’m sure there’ll still be consequences as parents will argue that those words are still highly inappropriate. There never seems to be a happy medium when it comes to who can and can’t say those words even though most of them are in the dictionary, where anyone can simply open one and read them from the page.
Why forbid using words that are clearly public record? Why delay the inevitable? If it were my children wanting to learn and use these words, then I’d set boundaries first. For example, there wouldn’t be any cursing around the children until they turned 15/16 so that we could avoid corrupting their more young and influential minds. This may seem unrealistic as they’d be exposed to others who would definitely know those words and blurt them out anywhere, but at least I’d have some control over their vernacular from the start so that they can feel more comfortable with asking me about these new words they may have learned accident.
Then, I’d teach them every swear word in the book including the ones in different languages just to keep things interesting. This way they’ll officially have all the tools they need to defend themselves in an argument or just knowing the meaning of these words in general.
We have a right to use them in any way we please. What matters is the time, place, and audience. A lot of people don’t have much tact when it comes to cursing. They’ll use it all willy-nilly not really caring who hears them and where they are especially if they let their anger get the best of them. I believe that if everyone learns to use curse words the right way, then perhaps we can normalize how and when we can use them. They’re a part of everyday life and can’t be avoided forever so why not view them as an exciting learning experience rather than vulgar and forbidden things we’re never supposed to touch.
