Our parents would not tolerate swearing, and even today I think less of any woman who swears, or any man who swears in the presence of a woman. As kids we were all having dinner when my mother dropped something and said, "Damn!" There was shocked silence until my Dad said, "Robert, I think your mother would like some jam."
Many years later, home after four years away with the Navy, I was trying to start the lawnmower, and let out an exasperated "Bugger it!", realising with horror that my Dad was nearby. Dad just smiled - after all he had been overseas with the Army thirty years beforehand, and could swear in arabic!
Isn't it wonderful, when you leave home convinced your father knows nothing, how much the old boy has learned by the time you get back?
A childhood belief about swearing
others believed things like this
- To this day my friend (he's 17) swears that chipmunks are baby squirrels.— Liz
- sophie b. hawkins. Damn I wish I was your lover. I heard Damn I wish I was your motherAnon
- I used to believe that swearing was just saying, “I swear!”Anon
- My Mother used to tell me only the good die young and I would live to be 100+ years old because I was bad.— William
- My mother used to call my behind "a paw paw" and for many years I refused to eat paw paws (papayas)— Garth
- my mother told me if i ever swallowed chewing gum i'd turn into a pig, i believed this for many years.— stuart hayward