Dear LPG,

Here is something that often goes under the radar until there is an addition to the family. 

I suppose that I am a relatively young pensioner and as such I can well remember the days when I was a much younger mother of two.  As does every mother, I thought my children to me were the most wonderful gift until the day that my seven-year-old son came home from school with his friend for tea.  So, there I was preparing the food while the boys played and talked in the other room and that was when it happened, I heard the utterance of a word that I felt inappropriate to say the least.  Let’s just say that it had four letters!  I remember being really upset with them and telling them both off at length.  I asked where they had heard the word, why they felt they had to use it etc.

Finally I asked my son’s friend what his parents would do if they had heard him say the word.  He answered, “…Wash my mouth out with soap and water”.  I continued to express my disgust for about half an hour before the young boy looked up at me and said, “I am really sorry” and then went on to suggest that the soap and water would be preferable to my continued talking.

After that the language toned down again until secondary school, which is when I gave up with telling them off each time the more expressive words were uttered.  But now that the seven year old is forty and he continues to have an interesting way of expressing himself from time to time, although his language has become a little less colourful since the birth of his son.   

On a more serious note, I am not sure if readers agree but it seems to me that now that many of these words are heard on TV and the radio, and we have found symbols that substitute for the way that they are spelled so it is acceptable to print them without actually printing them, they have become a bit too acceptable in recent years.  I am old and so more of a prude according to my children, but I suppose it is all a matter of opinion.  Is it all right as long as we don’t use the really bad words?  The Bible and many other religious books agree that the practice is wrong. 

It will be interesting to see if, in my little grandson’s case, what goes around comes around, but the question remains, why do we swear?   (Yes, I said we; I have to admit that I do it too from time to time).

AJ, Forest Hill

LPG found a lot of information and scientific study findings around the issue of swearing.  There is lots of evidence to support that most people swear privately to some degree but the problems start when regardless of where or when, the words just pop out uncontrollably.    Coprolalia is the medical term for when that happens.  There is also a lot of information to support that swearing when in pain can help some people to control it.  We apologise if some of the words in question are included in the information we have found.

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