I used to think a "potty mouth" meant someone who ate doodoo.

Madelyn

When I was in Kindergarten I had come home one day yelling,"mommy mommy Sapir(my friend) said the f word. My mom said,"what did she say" and I said,"Sapir said stupid".

Anon

when i was little i thought 'rats' was a bad word. so when my brother loudly shouted out "RATS!" in frustration i was appalled that he had actually said a bad word!

Anon

In Kindergarten, my teacher said she was "tired of all this tattle tale crap" and my jaw dropped because I thought crap was as bad as saying any swear word... I told my parents and they laughed.

Anon

when i was younger i never used to swear at all, at school when playing football etc becuase i thought that i mite have been tagged with sum mirophone or something and my parnets would be listening, i still dont swear near my parents

Anon

I used to believe that 'amateur' was an extremely bad word.

Maddy

I thought that since putting up the middle finger meant "Fuck you" I thought that the other fingers meant other swears...

Anon

My cousin used to think that "body" was a swear word.

Jordan

I said "Cheeses!" in front of nuns n they askd me to repeat the word so I repeat it and said its Cheeses as in the cheese we eat.
After a few years I came to realize that it was really Jesus! instead of Cheeses!.

Celine Clare M.

When I was 4 I was told not to use God's name in vain. I thought this just meant saying the word "God" at all. So I thought that you were supposed to say "Fairy Goshmother" instead of "Fairy Godmother".

What's weird about this is that I later found out this was just a belief on my mom's side of the family and not my dad's. It can be very confusing to be raised in a family of both a believer in God and someone who doesn't quite believe in Him that much.

Spencer

when i was in about 5th grade or so i started hearing all new words...bastard, whore, hoe, slut etc. i had no idea what these words meant, but i was very sure that bastard meant 'funny'. so one day at my friends house we were eatting dinner with her family and somebody said something rather funny, so i said 'oh, you're such a bastard!' wow, i'll never forget that!

Ahleigh

I used to believe that if you said a swear word, God would send a bolt of thunder and strike you dead right where you stood. One day when I was feeling quite reckless and perhaps stupid, I stood in the middle of my bedroom and said the "F" word out loud. And, lo and behold, I'm still here.

Cat

My childhood friend told me that his father had said the phrase "like so" and then admonished my friend to never say those words because it was a swear. Later, I watched an instructional TV show about oil painting and the instructor repeated the swear over and over. it was the dirtiest show I had ever seen! Later in life I realized that the phrase my friend heard was "___hole"

noncentz

When I was in elementary school, my grandmother told me that if I showed my middle finger to anyone it means that I hated God. So one day I saw a kid on the bus hold up his middle finger. I said to my friend, "he hates God." She was confused.

Tiffy

I used to believe that every time I said a bad word, tiny invisible elves would walk over and pinch me really hard.

Anon

I saw the "F" word in several bathrooms when I was little, and I thought that it was the name of a guy who went to different bathrooms and signed his name in them. I asked my mom who it was, and she told me to never say that word again...

Anon

When I was younger I was told by my parents that "foxy" was a bad word. Years later I went to the school library and was shocked to find the book "Foxy" on the shelf. I was so afraid to check it out of the library because I was sure that the librarian would contact my parents to tell them that I had checked it out so I sat there and read it at the library. After finishing the book (it was about a little fox and her adventures) I honestly thought that my parents were crazy to think that foxy was a worse word than shit, cock or fu*k.

Christopher

When I was just learning to read, I used to see the signs that read 'Menswear', 'Womenswear' and 'Childrenswear' in department stores and would refuse to go into these areas as I was always taught that swearing was wrong.
I only had my mistake pointed out to me after my dad returned one day to find me stearnly telling a shop assistant that they shouldn't be teaching children to swear.
It never put me off shopping though.

Flos

My little brother got a dump truck one year for christmas. when asked what it was, he replied "a dumb f*ck"

maggie

When I was 3 I watched a Micky Mouse cartoon where Mickey called Pluto a dumb mutt. I thought he said damn it, so I figured it was ok to say it. My mom wasn't happy when I repeated it...

Anon