Teens and Swearing

Teens and Swearing

I remember the first time my daughter used a swear word in my home. I was torn between wanting to laugh at what was happening in front of my face and wanting to cry that a whole new set of “problems” was on the horizon.

As an adult I’ve gone through various phases in my life. At some times I’ve used swear words and at others times I have not. It was important that I recognized that some of my daughter cussing at home had to be that she’d heard it from me and she was testing her own entrance into what she believed was adulthood.

If your tweens and teens cussing in your home is not acceptable to you, there are steps you can take:

Clean up your own language. Let your child know that cussing is no longer acceptable in your home. They can’t swear and you won’t either. It’s very hard to tell a child that a behavior you won’t tolerate in them is ok for you. So make it a house rule, no more cussing.

Discuss what being an adult really means. As children enter into their pre-teen and teen years they are struggling with leaving childhood and entering into pre-adulthood. Talk about what this means. Cussing is not a sign of being adult. In fact, cussing will actually insult some people.

Cussing can actually lead to feelings of lower self esteem. There are some experts who show a correlation between happiness and removal of swear words from your vocabulary.

My daughter told me that everyone was cussing. If she really wanted to use cuss words, using them at school around friends was ok. Using them at home in front of me was not ok. There was also a fine line of not using them at school around adult staff that might find the words offensive.

If your child continues to swear in your presence you can begin setting consequences. Make sure to follow through. For most tweens and teens, it’s just a phase and this too shall pass.

Audrey :)
http://mytupperware.com/audreyoka