I've often thought about how I should cut back on the expletives. I don't use them around my son unless something really crazy happens and then I immediately cover it up by pretending that I said something that sounds similar to the curse word. I've actually become quite a pro in the art of swear-diversion.Considering that I have probably cut my swearing out by about 70% I'm fairly certain that my child won't go around telling his teacher to 'eff off' or anything like that. The day he falls of a monkey bar and exclaims "Gah! Shit!" I will die a thousand shame-filled deaths.
So can swearing be good for you? Read on for the answer.
According to a study done by Keele University in Staffordshire, UK swearing "can produce effective, short-term pain relief". The researchers, Richard Stephens and Claudia Umland from Keele’s School of Psychology, also indicate that the study showed more benefits to those who did not swear regularly.
Read about the study and its results.
In a nutshell, if you experience pain from, say, stubbing your toe, swearing can cause a sort of 'stress-induced analgesia' that is part of the fight-or-flight response. But like taking too many pain relief tablets - if you abuse it, it stops working so well.
Conclusion - only swear when you have to - make it count.
It's possible that having kids around 'monitoring' our language is actually very helpful in terms of saving up our swearing for when we really need that numbing effect!
If swearing can ease your physical pain, is it also helpful in relation to mental stresses or frustration? The study doesn't really say. But in my completely unprofessional and uneducated opinion - YES! Holding your frustration in is unhealthy. You have to let that shit out! See? I did it just there. I said 'shit'. It meant I was serious.
Were you offended? Probably not. Do you really care if I swore? Unlikely. Did it make a point? Who knows?
But when I stub my toe and lay around on the ground rolling about and feeling sorry for myself (which is often because as my husband likes to remind me, I am really clumsy - it's part of my charm) I am going to let out a 'fuuuuuuuuuhhh'. If my son is around, it will be a vehement whisper but it's going to be said and it's going to make me feel better.
The *&^@ End.
Are you a potty-mouth? Do you slip and swear in front of your kids? Are you able to separate your adult language from your kiddie language 100% of the time?
3 comments:
Hahaha. It sounds like you and I have similar vocabularies. In our house, we made an Al SwearenJar: http://adventureswithtuco.wordpress.com/2011/10/20/the-al-swearenjar/
I guess it helped a little, but bad habits are @#$%ing hard to break.
My baby is 3 months so I have not yet learned the art of monitored language...possibly one day I will. Like when he says, "What the fuck, Romo blows" in front of his great grandparents...who also drink like fishes, so it might be more funny then upsetting but whatever, still good parenting on my part!
I can already tell that we will need a swear jar around here too. This is how we will fund our trip around the world.
Swearing in front of the grandparents is always kind of funny. And I remember the first time I ever heard my mom say 'fuck'. I was probably about 13, and she said it, then sort of giggled and looked really really relieved.
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