Um, yes…..
Reader question: Do you curse in front of your kids?
The Company of Dads answer: F*%k, yeah. I mean, within reason. My middle daughter has been sneaking glimpses of Ted Lasso – greatest show of the year – when my wife and I watch it. It’s generally a wonderfully upbeat show, except for the language. I didn’t think much of it – as my grandfather taught me, better to hear it at home where we can explain it than from friends – but the other day my daughter said, “You know what Dad, you sound like Roy Kent.”
Holy F*%k! Not Roy Kent!
He’s the footballer turned commentator turned coach and is one of the best characters on the show. He’s stoic and sensitive. He also says F*%k at around a 2 to 1 ratio of every other word he speaks. Fortunately – I think – my daughter was offering an observation, not a criticism.
But it got me thinking of how I – and my wife – use curse words in our house. We use them in the intransitive, not transitive sense. (You’re welcome, grammarians.) What that means is we never swear at each other or other people; we swear, as it were, into the air. It’s the difference between, “F*%ck You” and “Oh, f*%k no…”
It’s a word of exasperation. It’s also normalizing and explaining expletives to them. I mean, we’re in our f*%king third winter of Covid. Who wouldn’t curse?
COD Ref Code #: B-0007
