What's the right age to let your children listen to swearing in music/films?

[Triggaaar]

I've kept the kids away from swearing, but things like Spotify and YouTube make that tricky. My kids are pretty good at stopping watching things that they notice have swearing in, but I feel like telling them they don't have to any more.

It also means not letting them see threads on here, because you're are all potty mouthed w@nkers.

So, at what age is it ok to just let them listen to all music, watch all YT, and read the depraved NSC?

 

[Titanic]

When they are old enough to understand not repeating it in front of their mother / teacher / vicar etc...

 

[Triggaaar]

When they are old enough to understand not repeating it in front of their mother / teacher / vicar etc...

That's pretty young then?

 

[Jack Straw]

I once heard a discussion on swearing a long while ago, and one of the learned quoted "The reason why people swear is because they're not bright enough to think of a word to use, so use a swear word as the default." By preaching this philosophy to kids may make them think what they say? It may lower their opinion of swearers? So they may hear swearing, but won't swear themselves?
I told these words of wisdom to a friend of mine years ago and his response was "What a load of f****** b*******, which seemed to prove my point!

 

[Deleted member 2719]

Difficult one i have the same issues, i went to play my skunk anansie CD in the car the other day with my 10 year old sat next to me and thought this may not be a good idea!

My dad once heard me swear at home in my early teens, it never happened at home again.

 

[McTavish]

I once heard a discussion on swearing a long while ago, and one of the learned quoted "The reason why people swear is because they're not bright enough to think of a word to use, so use a swear word as the default." By preaching this philosophy to kids may make them think what they say? It may lower their opinion of swearers? So they may hear swearing, but won't swear themselves?
I told these words of wisdom to a friend of mine years ago and his response was "What a load of f****** b*******, which seemed to prove my point!

Unfortunately for that theory, it has been shown by several studies that people who swear tend to be brighter than those who don't. Most recently a study by Marist College in NY found that "speakers who use taboo words understand their general expressive content as well as nuanced distinctions that must be drawn to use slurs appropriately. The ability to make nuanced distinctions indicates the presence of more rather than less linguistic knowledge, as implied by the POV [Poverty of Vocabulary] view."
Obviously there is not a 100% direct correlation, some swearers are properly stupid c**nts...

 

[McTavish]

Difficult one i have the same issues, i went to play my skunk anansie CD in the car the other day with my 10 year old sat next to me and thought this may not be a good idea!

You could always try a variation on this:

 

[Westdene Seagull]

We worked on about 9 years old but with VERY strict instructions that if we ever caught them using swear words then they would be in deep s**t ( although we used the word poo ).

 

[bhanutz]

Do you take them to football?

 

[Deleted member 2719]

You could always try a variation on this:

I think my son would be equally as unimpressed as that lad was!

 

[studio150]

Just play them Derek and Clive that should solve the problem given that they will know every swear word and be overdosed on them so will effectively not hear them in the future.

 

[tinx]

My 9 year old hears swear words and tells me when she does as she doesn't like it. My 12 year old comes to football with me and has done since he was 4 so has heard more than his fair share of swear words. he knows not to repeat things he hears in front of his mother.

 

[Thunder Bolt]

When my kids were growing up, I was more concerned about violence in films than swearing, as they heard swear words at school. My daughter was only 4 when I heard her swearing, repeating something she'd heard her 7 year old brother say. Obviously, I had a word in his shell like, which seemed to have a good effect.

 

[Colonel Angus]

I've kept the kids away from swearing, but things like Spotify and YouTube make that tricky. My kids are pretty good at stopping watching things that they notice have swearing in, but I feel like telling them they don't have to any more.

It also means not letting them see threads on here, because you're are all potty mouthed w@nkers.

So, at what age is it ok to just let them listen to all music, watch all YT, and read the depraved NSC?

24 years

 

[Greg Bobkin]

It's pretty pointless, IMO. Once they get to school they hear all the bad language under the sun.

 

[Lord Bracknell]

After a somewhat rowdy evening in a pub somewhere (I can't remember exactly where), my daughter (old enough to buy her own drinks) did tell me that she thought she was too young to listen to my rendition of the limerick about the young lady from Bude who danced on the stage in the nude.

 

[Tim Over Whelmed]

After a somewhat rowdy evening in a pub somewhere (I can't remember exactly where), my daughter (old enough to buy her own drinks) did tell me that she thought she was too young to listen to my rendition of the limerick about the young lady from Bude who danced on the stage in the nude.

So the other limerick of "There was a young lady from Ealing ...." was way outside such boundaries?

 

[Triggaaar]

Do you take them to football?

Yep. They didn't know anyone was swearing as they didn't recognise the words. They know now though. Although it's been several years before they realised there's a swear word in 'ooooooooooooo! Your shit, ahhhhhhh'.

 

[Triggaaar]

You could always try a variation on this:

I was expecting the kid in the back to ask where all the ****ing had gone.

 

[Triggaaar]

My daughter was only 4 when I heard her swearing, repeating something she'd heard her 7 year old brother say. Obviously, I had a word in his shell like

Has someone hacked your account?