Swearing on public transport and children

I don’t understand. Was it the kid that was swearing?

This is why society has gone to the dogs, since when has it been socially acceptable to be cursing and having your phone on speaker? The only arses are you and the woman.

When DD was little I absolutely did pull people up on it on public transport. As a person who hates confrontation and was worried speaking up but also my little girl didn’t need to hear it once, never mind over and over again. Every single time they apologised and stopped. It’s not acceptable. It’s pathetic that people can’t have some decorum. But here we are now over a decade later and people have no respect for anything anymore. Even more pathetic.

Well personal attacks aside - if not interfering with people who are going about their lives legally is being an arse, then I probably am.

I would never use speakerphone in public . I do my best not to swear if there are kids about. However I recognise that adults do things that are less than ideal in the opinion of others

I do my best to keep myself to myself when out and about and I loathe confrontation but if I did something that aomeone disapproved of and they confronted me in public then I wouldn’t apologise and back down.

Yes it was the little boy.
I'd been playing peek a boo with him up until then
I couldn't look at him as I would've started laughing.

I heard a celebrity the other day on the radio defending swearing as it being our right and ‘they’re just words’ and I thought yes, but if someone uses those words to or at you there’s very few instances where your back won’t be up! I don’t think it’s a good idea to confront someone in general though as you’re starting a confrontation, especially in front of a child. I think you can say to a child after ‘well that person’s language wasn’t great’ or something to that effect

I don’t respect people who think they can tell off other adults. You got lucky if they apologised - I have seen things get a bit nasty in that situation. Granted it wasn’t the nicest area but it wasn’t pleasant to witness.

Swearing at someone is of course going to get their back up. But confronting someone for swearing in a communal space is also going to wind someone up,

“Tell off other adults?” It’s not primary school. Have you been “told off” as an adult and didn’t like it? So you’d be fine with your little kid sitting in full earshot of that and not say a thing? Yes, I was lucky they apologised as we live in a rough area but people of any age should be pulled up on doing something unacceptable and in this example, in front of small kids. You’d really just sit there and not say a word in case you ended up “telling off an adult”? Give your head a wobble. Old or young you absolutely can pull anyone up on vile behaviour or ignore and accept it which is worse, especially for the kid. I think your respect is a bit skewed.

It's appalling to speak like that, especially in front of children. I am relaxed about it generally in adult company but in a public place, it is disrespectful.

Why should you move when someone else is being antisocial? He was good to tell her. She needs to be aware other people live on this earth too.

I doing understand why so many people have conversations on speaker phone rather than hold it up to their ear. Does any one know why people do it?

What the hell? How is he an arse? When did it become acceptable to swear your head off in public?

I’ve twice told, not asked, people to stop swearing in front of young children. Once was on holiday - a drunk woman swearing her head off on a phone conversation while her embarrassed partner sat nearby. I just walked up and said stop swearing in front of my child, your language is foul. She stared at me in astonishment but did tone it down. I told her partner to talk to her about it when she’s sober because if I see it again I’ll complain to staff.

The second time was in the school playground where a couple were waiting to pick up their DC and his language was awful. She told him to stop swearing and he told her he couldn’t give a …. I walked over and asked him if he wanted to have this discussion in front of school staff. He actually apologised to me. You don’t stand in a playground at 3pm and swear your head off in my world.

Technically you can’t expect everyone to accommodate for other people’s kids in public but I do think it’s common courtesy to exercise restraint when children are around and those who don’t are more often than not the dregs of society. Good on dh for saying something as I agree, there was no where for him to take the kids away.
I was at a slash pool at our local park the other week which was rammed with young children and bang in the middle of the pool was a mum on the phone having an incredibly loud conversation, spitting out swear words and talking about all the ‘little sh*ts’ around her splashing her. Thankfully I heard her as we were leaving but she was getting a lot of looks.

I often find that grey haired oldies are dreadful with phone etiquette.

Loud ring tones, phones on speaker phone.Because they can't hear, playing videos out loud, forget to switch mobile phones off or put them on silent in the royal opera house for example

What delightful ageist choice of words too.

People need to be called out for this so he did the right thing.

Just tell your child that they’re not very nice words and nice people don’t use them and then distract them.

I hate stuff like this because I would put money on the fact your DH wouldn’t have told a bloke to tone down the language. It’s always men feeling confident to tell women how to behave; you rarely see them telling other men.

It is his business if he and his 4 year old can hear it.

So are you.

We were at a family sporting event last month, lots of children/families having fun. One chap standing very close to me started effing and blinding about everything, I don't like to hear that, but I'm an adult, so didn't say anything, even though there were children around. It was when he started with the C word, I had had enough, even the children were looking at him; I asked him to not use that word as it was very offensive, and there were small children around. He told me it was his favourite word.

I asked someone to either wear headphones or turn off their media recently. It's just manners to respect other people in a shared space. She didn't like it

Spot on.

I'm not particularly sweary, but a man trying to control my behaviour in public would have got right up my nose, I'm afraid.

The woman was exhibiting low-grade scumbag behaviour. She got called out on behaving like a low-grade scumbag. The sex of the person who called it out really is a very minor point, and whether it was a man or a woman who did so they should be commended for trying to stop the low-grade scumbag behaviour. Not enough people do.

I think he was right to call her out, though I can also see your point about causing a confrontation - you don’t always know how someone will react, and you’re likely worried because your child was there, so I get that.

I do swear (not constantly), but sometimes it’s just the best word to use. However, I don’t do it in front of children and I try to watch what I’m saying in public places.

I also tend to lower my voice in public places like cafes and public transport because there’s seriously nothing worse than those people with their booming foghorn voices talking at full volume and thinking their conversation is one that everyone wants to hear.

Like another poster, I have heard groups of men and women in bars who seemed incapable of using anything else but swear words and I just think that’s crass and unnecessary - it seems almost like teenagers trying to impress their mates, except these people are in their 50s and it’s all a bit tragic.

Yes. A bad experience has put me off doing it in future. Resulted in being followed out of a cafe and threatened - also filmed and accused of being a Karen and even racist.