Always fun to reflect on forbidden words projected from a certain person followed by assessment of the why. Often more revealing of the person than the word.
Spot-on, and this was a real eye-opener for me at that age. I think I leveled up from kid to adult in quantum jumps, and that might have been one of them.
Seriously though, I wasn't like a goody-two shoes kid or anything, so actually tattling on someone like Desire seems anathema to young Andrew, but the way she felt personally hurt by a bunch of little dumb kids is incredible. I bet I would have felt the same way, too.
Fuckin' kids. In my house we had no religion and not much restriction across the 7 words but my dad was vigilant in reprimanding us for any god damn or similar. Maybe it's because we were Jewish, but he would say "I don't care if you say that, but some people care a lot."
That's a good red line for a kid, I think. Religion is really tough to navigate when you're younger (and when you're older!), so not stomping on someone's beliefs with careless language when you just don't understand the full power is a way of protecting the kid from harm, I think.
I learned about social swearing at a birthday party when I was six. We were playing a card game and one kid kept winning. Frustrated, I said, “You lucky son of a bitch!” The mother present instantly told me that was swearing and I said, “It is?” Then she said, “Well you learn something every day.” I certainly did that day!
My mother was a librarian, and very strict about our language. Not for religious or moral reasons - she was an atheist - but she firmly believed swearing was a sign of an uneducated person with a limited vocabulary and low intellectual ability, and no child of hers was going to be either of those things.
On the very rare occasions where my mom said "damn," "hell," or "bullshit," we knew she was ABSOLUTELY BEYOND FURIOUS. As teens, if my brother or I slipped up and dropped an f-bomb in her presence, she would sigh sadly, and mournfully say "I don't know where I went wrong with you. I thought you were more intelligent and capable of expressing yourself more precisely." That was enough to shame us into never swearing around her!
"That sucks" was one of those gray areas. My mother felt it fell into the category of "bad language," but she couldn't really explain how. I would say with wide eyed pseudo-innocence "It's just short for 'sucks eggs,' why is that so terrible?" My mom, however, thought it meant sucking something else, but she didn't want to go into detail as to what exactly...
Mom also didn't like the sanitized versions, like "frigging." I would protest that those were not technically swears, but she said it was the principal of the thing - it was showing a limited vocabulary.
My brother and I used to amuse ourselves by insulting each other pedantically "You have a cranio-rectal inversion!" "Oh yeah? Well, YOU have sexual intercourse with your close relatives!" Mom would get annoyed at this, but she couldn't really discipline us for it as we were utilizing a lot of vocabulary.
I also employed plenty of my own workarounds for rules, though not with regard to swearing. I do remember frag, frack, and frig being pretty common standins for the F-bomb, and I certainly remember Conan O'Brien doing a running gag where he and Andy Richter tried to make "krunk" a new swear word. I think their point was to poke fun at sacred words, like Carlin.
I feel your mom's point and appreciate it, although I might push back a bit on just how creative you can or can't be with profane language. I appreciate where she was coming from, though!
I didn't know about the existence of these words for a very long time after I was born- my family, teachers and the media I consumed saw to that.
How long? What was the first dirty word you learned and when was that? I am now intrigued.
Probably elementary school or sometime like that. I think it might have been in a book I was reading.
I learned a lot in fifth grade from one kid in particular. There’s always that one kid!
Well, shit, if Desiree can't trust a bunch of damn middle school kids, who the hell can she trust? That fucking sucks.
Whoa whoa whoa, there could be middle school kids around. "Damn", "shit", and "hell" only, please.
Always fun to reflect on forbidden words projected from a certain person followed by assessment of the why. Often more revealing of the person than the word.
Spot-on, and this was a real eye-opener for me at that age. I think I leveled up from kid to adult in quantum jumps, and that might have been one of them.
Who told on Desiree? Cuz thats some bullshit
Damn hell you're right!
Seriously though, I wasn't like a goody-two shoes kid or anything, so actually tattling on someone like Desire seems anathema to young Andrew, but the way she felt personally hurt by a bunch of little dumb kids is incredible. I bet I would have felt the same way, too.
Fuckin' kids. In my house we had no religion and not much restriction across the 7 words but my dad was vigilant in reprimanding us for any god damn or similar. Maybe it's because we were Jewish, but he would say "I don't care if you say that, but some people care a lot."
That's a good red line for a kid, I think. Religion is really tough to navigate when you're younger (and when you're older!), so not stomping on someone's beliefs with careless language when you just don't understand the full power is a way of protecting the kid from harm, I think.
I learned about social swearing at a birthday party when I was six. We were playing a card game and one kid kept winning. Frustrated, I said, “You lucky son of a bitch!” The mother present instantly told me that was swearing and I said, “It is?” Then she said, “Well you learn something every day.” I certainly did that day!
You didn't get your mouth washed out with soap or anything, did you? I remember that scene in A Christmas Story really well.
The soap thing was a real deal back in the day. Do you know where the notion came from other than “Cleanliness is next to Godliness”?
I think that's the main thing: the idea of purity and hygiene being closely related!
My mother was a librarian, and very strict about our language. Not for religious or moral reasons - she was an atheist - but she firmly believed swearing was a sign of an uneducated person with a limited vocabulary and low intellectual ability, and no child of hers was going to be either of those things.
On the very rare occasions where my mom said "damn," "hell," or "bullshit," we knew she was ABSOLUTELY BEYOND FURIOUS. As teens, if my brother or I slipped up and dropped an f-bomb in her presence, she would sigh sadly, and mournfully say "I don't know where I went wrong with you. I thought you were more intelligent and capable of expressing yourself more precisely." That was enough to shame us into never swearing around her!
"That sucks" was one of those gray areas. My mother felt it fell into the category of "bad language," but she couldn't really explain how. I would say with wide eyed pseudo-innocence "It's just short for 'sucks eggs,' why is that so terrible?" My mom, however, thought it meant sucking something else, but she didn't want to go into detail as to what exactly...
Mom also didn't like the sanitized versions, like "frigging." I would protest that those were not technically swears, but she said it was the principal of the thing - it was showing a limited vocabulary.
My brother and I used to amuse ourselves by insulting each other pedantically "You have a cranio-rectal inversion!" "Oh yeah? Well, YOU have sexual intercourse with your close relatives!" Mom would get annoyed at this, but she couldn't really discipline us for it as we were utilizing a lot of vocabulary.
That's great. I love the workarounds.
I also employed plenty of my own workarounds for rules, though not with regard to swearing. I do remember frag, frack, and frig being pretty common standins for the F-bomb, and I certainly remember Conan O'Brien doing a running gag where he and Andy Richter tried to make "krunk" a new swear word. I think their point was to poke fun at sacred words, like Carlin.
I feel your mom's point and appreciate it, although I might push back a bit on just how creative you can or can't be with profane language. I appreciate where she was coming from, though!
This post did not drain my energy and avoided being vacuous. One might say it didn’t do the opposite. Ya know, it doesn’t blow.
Dang, missed opportunity to point out the suck/blow opposite thing! Both are normal words, but both can be "profane" as well.
I’m here to point out all the possibilities of life.