To ask about children and appropriate language

[exmoormare]

My extended family have reacted in shock to dd (nearly 3) talking about a fart

Have I made a massive faux pas? The irony is I never really swear bar the odd 'bloody hell' but I never thought of fart as being a bad word?

Well, we taught DS to say trump instead, it's not a nice word, but hardly up there with her saying "fuck off you cunt" at your great aunt...

The word "trump" makes me shudder. It is no better nor worse than fart IMO.

DCs use "pop".

I hate the word and don't use it but I can't say it shocks or offends me if I hear a child using it.

I am quite at the idea of 'oh my God' not being considered swearing though - I'd consider that far more offensive than any 'ordinary' swear word. I'd be doing a double take if I heard a child say that, don't think I'd believe I'd actually heard it.

Pop is the worst! Grandma used to say 'popped off'. Makes my skin crawl to say it out loud even now!

Ds said to me the other day " I am off for a piss". My baby is growing up.
I told him " Waz" is considered politer in smart circles.

Apparently, fart is the most commonly used word for flatulence, in the UK. I think because people find the act distasteful, the most commonly used word is found distasteful by connotation. Poor fart. Is the idea of inventing all of these ridiculous nicknames, an effort to distance as far as is possible, the word from the meaning? And therefore, the speaker of the word, from the act? Parpers, trumpers and wind breakers, you are fooling no-one!

Trump is a horrible word, people are completely unreasonable to use that purely on stylistic grounds.

Really treacle? You'd be more shocked by a child saying OMG than if they called someone a fucking cunt?

She calls it a Gina (soft 'j' and 'eye' sound, not like the girls name )

Don't like 'trump' although that seems to be the generally accepted word round here.

Fart is mild in this house

Oh my god is a weird one.

I don't like Jesus Christ but don't mind 'god' or 'oh my god' - don't know why.

I think 'god' is more used in awe.

'Tesco's shelves were empty today.'
'Really ... God!'

'Im late - JESUS!'

I dunno why I don't mind the former but not the latter.

My sister wouldn't let her DC say fart, and they spent years saying 'poo fart willy bum' because they were "naughty" words. So I decided to go the other way and not use ridiculous made up euphemisms - like Procrastination says, a fart is a fart. A trump or a pop or a blow off can mean many things.

And I don't find fart particularly offensive, certainly not on the same scale as shit, piss or even crap.

I like trump and parp. I find them childish and amusing (just like farts themselves).

I like trump, just because it sounds kind of triumphant. I think I must have grown up in a rough area. I wouldn't be shocked by children saying " oh my God". I might be shocked if they said "cunt", but probably only if they were under ten, sadly.
DS did come home from school last year telling me he knew the c word. I thought "already? " the word he thought was the c word was "crap" so still quite innocent despite my seweresque vocabulary.

To me 'fart' sound rude but I have heard it used on a CBBC science programme about global warming , so I guess officially it is ok.It would sound wrong for a 3 yr old to say it round these parts.Trump/pump is more usual

spinduchess no, you're right, I wouldn't be more shocked than if a child said 'fucking cunt' but I would be as shocked, if that makes sense. It was drummed into me as a child that there was no language more offensive than blasphemy - other words are just 'words', whose acceptability or otherwise can often change through time anyway.

'Crap' is the c word in this house too, which is hilarious given that I am a foul mouthed fishwife when I forget myself. The DCs have a good in simultaneous eye-rolling and heavy sighing when I swear (although I'm allowed in the car - swearing in the car is an essential part of good driving) I'm sure the DSs (16 and 14) let loose at school but at home I'm the only naughty one! They get twitchy using bloody in the literal descriptive version.

Oh, and I was brought up with 'fart' being a no-no, but we use it in this house now everyone's past little kid age.

Are you my sister?

My teens said the word fart and bloody.

My mum was not happy. She always pulls them up on it. 'Say trump, fart is a horrible word'

I don't think it is a nice word but I don't get the fuss my mum makes about it.

I hate all the 'twee' words like trump and pop. Drives me nuts, mine all said fart, that's what it is. To me it's like making up a word for window, it's a window.

I say fart, always have done.
OH says guff. (who guffed?)

It absolutely isn't a swear word.

It isn't a particualry polite word either though.

I know my eldest (12) has taken to swearing with his friends. I've told him that it's about context, i.e. don't swear in front of his grandparents or at school or in front of his younger siblings. It's about knowing when that sort of language is OK and when it would offend. In the UK, people will swear in offices, but when I worked in the US people didn't.

Fart is not a swear word in my book. I was once on a school trip with some year 5 children. One of the children said something was "crap" and the TA told him off strongly about using that sort of language. The children and the other TA and I were that they would get told off for that.

I think I live in a different universe to others sometimes. Fart is totally harmless, about level with bum in terms of crudeness, ie, not at all.

The US is certainly more bad language averse than the UK, but even in the Bible Belt, people of all ages say fart, although they might say that it really does not need to be said very often.

It's generally inappropriate in formal situations to talk about farts at all, so mentioning them with any word may be wrong, but fart itself is the same as poo or pee or any other normal word for the activity / result of such things.