Hey, Kid, Watch Your Mouth!
This afternoon while driving down 11th Street towards Hartsville High School to register my child for classes next year, I got quite a shock. A young girl of about ten years of age pedaled her bicycle on the other side of the road, balancing a very small toddler on her handlebars: I slowed down and watched to insure that she didn’t swerve into oncoming traffic, and through my open window I clearly heard her proclaim,
“Whatcha looking at, A@@H*&$!”, her cheeks reddening in anger, blue eyes narrowed in my direction.
I was so stunned, my mouth dropped.
Now, I’ve been called many a thing, but never THAT, and certainly not by a child!
Where is this language coming from??
Swearing has become such a part of conversation for teenagers today that it is honestly more uncommon to hear a teen not swear than to swear. When you ask them, they’ll tell you “it’s just the way we talk”, and “everyone else swears, too, even my teachers do!”
Now, whether that is true or not, swearing is becoming more and more commonplace. It is rare to watch a movie without being bombarded by profanity, and television programs are right behind. There are not many Napoleon Dynamite movies being made in Hollywood, nor are there many sitcoms that don’t have questionable conversation, and music?… please. When you hear a 7 year old singing the entire lyrics of “Fergilicious”, you know you have a problem in our society.
Teachers from all grade levels say that language is definitely a problem, but that with everything else going on it ends up sometimes getting swept under the rug. One young woman who teaches at Hartsville High School (who prefers to remain anonymous) told me that if she reprimanded each student for each cuss word she heard a day, she'd have a steady line to the Vice Principals office.
What is a parent to do?
On the radio, 89.7 FM's WMHK offers on their promos that they are a station “that you won’t be embarrassed to listen to with your children in the car.” When I listen to 105.5 FM morning show with Bob and Sheri, Bob will frequently tell listeners to, "go ahead and turn your volume down".
Okay, how about the television? Especially since the old days of no bad language before 9:00pm? Most parents opt to not have televisions in their younger children’s bedrooms, and can monitor their television viewing, but you can hang that up when they get a certain age. If you don’t think they are watching things you don’t approve of, or viewing videos or reading things on the Internet that has questionable language, you need to know this: They are exposed, and if not at your home, at someone else’s house.
Studies on how explicit song lyrics have been studied since the days of Tipper Gore when the labeling of cd's began. First Amendment devotees still rankle with the censorship of their art, but parents the world over rejoiced that finally, someone thought to make music choices a littler easier than to actually have to listen to all the music first- especially since some of it is too hard to figure out, anyway!
Good news, parents, is that you can easily do a web search on almost every song that your child listens to by simply typing in the song title + artist + lyrics. Wal Mart sells "clean" versions of most top 40 hit music, and both Ray's #2 on 4th Street (behind the Rose's and Belk's Main Entrances) and the Hartsville Christian Bookstore on Carolina Avenue will order music for you if you prefer to buy from small , locally owned stores.
What if you try to do all you can, and can't seem to get your kid's mouth clean?
After a bit of web searching, I found a few sites of interest. This one in particular has some good tips
Anti-Swearing Efforts Falling on Deaf Ears
By Valerie Strauss
The following list of tips was found on the article above.
Tips to Tame Your Tongue
1. Recognize that swearing does damage.
2. Start by eliminating casual swearing. Pretend that your grandmother or your young daughter is always next to you.
3. Think positively.
4. Practice being patient. When you are stuck in line or in traffic, ask yourself if a few more minutes matter.
5. Cope, don't cuss. Consider even the smallest annoyance a challenge, and feel proud of yourself for taking care of it cheerfully and efficiently.
6. Stop complaining. Before you start griping or whining about something, remind yourself that no one really wants to hear about it.
7. Use alternative words. Develop your own list of alternatives to the nasty words you now use, relying on your own intelligence, a thesaurus, good books and clever TV shows.
8. Make your point politely. Some substitute words can be just as offensive if your tone is abrasive or you insult someone.
9. Think of what you should have said.
10. Work at it.
SOURCE: Cuss Control Academy http://www.cusscontrol.com
That site also has a large section on Workplace Profanity.
Women One: How to handle children who swear
http://raisingchildren.net.au/articles/swearing_-_cyh.html
Maybe we all need a little reminder to clean up our mouth, little people are listening!
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