I have quite suddenly become sweary. AIBU to mind, and to ask if it has ever happened to you?!

[NewPottyMouth]

NC for this, as I am a bit , ,, and . Also a little too, if honest!!!

Not wanting to sound like Mrs Prissy Knickers, but I have never been much of a swearer. I wasn't brought up around serious swearing, though our DM certainly had plenty of reasons to swear. I don't much like it TBH, but each to their own and all that if other people do. Despite plenty of provocation from life and various people over the years, I've remained a very occasional 'bugger, bloody and shit' utterer, and even then only usually in private in the comfort of my own home.

Fast forward to this year, and something has changed. Swear words seem to be my favourite words. Lots more 'bugger, bloody, and shit' but also fk, fk off and b*d. I started out thinking it, then muttering it under my breath, and now saying it out loud. There's always some provocation but not necessarily anything huge. I fear I'm only a step away from using the c word, which I've always hated - I know some people don't.

Has this happened to you and if so, why? How did you handle it - have you even rejoiced in it? What did your family and friends make of the new you?

Oh me too! Glad I'm Bot the only one. Making a conscious effort to stop - particularly since my eldest daughter said "I don't fucking care" in school the other day clearly that comes from me I don't like the sweary me at all!!!!

This hasn't happened to me because I've always loved swearing :o

I don't know how old you are but I think maybe something about menopause or mid-life can suddenly make you give less of a shit or let your anger rise to the surface more easily.

Arse!

The opposite happened to me, i swore like a trooper until i was pregnant then i got weirdly mild mannered and calm. It really freaked me out.
Then i had 2 lively, non-sleeping, toddlers and the swearing came back.

The C word is a thing of glory. I love it! I mean do avoid it if you prefer of course, but you might find it just completes your transformation.

It's quite common actually, once people start using a word or phrase they will keep using it and the frequency increases it's very difficult to break. When I was in high school it was like, I always used to say it and it annoyed the heck out of everyone. Then when I first started uni I started to swear more because I was surrounded by a lot of swearers and it has stuck ever since, if you find a way to get rid of it please tell me!

I have also become sweary recently, (really stunned some people at work last week!)but I know it is because I have become fed up with my job and the knock on it has. Fortunately, I have a new job on the horizon and I think this will help!

Yep, always been a bit sweary, but a combination of chronic pain and there being so bloody much to be angry about right now - dismantling the NHS, Windrush, government services outsourced to dodgy companies like Carillon and Capita, the pay gap, the rape apologists, etc etc.

Cunting fuckery all around.

Oh dear, Exec!!! How old is your DD?! No, I definitely don't think you're alone. I think that's one of my main issues - I wouldn't put up with it from my DC's, have always tried to set them a good example, (even successfully half the time), yet here I am now needing a bar of soap in my mouth, (as my DM used to threaten)!

I feel a bit of a hypocrite because the DC have grown up not hearing swearing at home, (unless they could read my mind at times!), and being told not to repeat it if they hear it elsewhere. Teen DS has done pretty well with that, despite hearing a lot of swearing from peers (of all backgrounds) at his schools from age 8 upwards. I actually swore at him twice the other day, (under reasonably extreme but pretty normal teen provocation). His face was a picture! I did apologise, but even so. He's gone from having a DM who tells him off if he says 'What the fudge' because we both know he means 'what the f**k', to having a DM who is suddenly the womanly slightly less unkempt version of Father Jack, (he's a big Father Ted fan).

Oh me too. Peri menopause blamed here but frankly I just love a good swear vent

If you have always loved swearing Captain, I wonder if you're a parent and if so how you handle your potty mouth around your DC? Or if not a parent, around any kids you know?

Hmm. The age thing could be starting to come into play I suppose. Is that a thing?

With the 'Arse' signing off, it sounds like you're a Father Ted fan also! Strong Irish roots here. Feck never seems as bad as the version I'm now using however...

My DC have started to swear a bit and I'm secretly not that upset. I know DS says fuck since he started secondary school as he's stopped himself halfway through saying it in front of me :o

They hear it more from other people more than they do from me, as I make some kind of effort to control myself (mostly). I think it's better to accept you can't prevent that, but make sure they understand when swearing is not OK.

Plenty of evidence that swearing is not always a bad thing:

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/health-benefits-of-swearing_us_5a5e44a8e4b0106b7f65b3a6

...If it is a thing, I might need to write a new version of that poem, 'When I am old, I shall wear purple '.

When I am old, I shall tell you to F**k Off.

Charming

Oops that was an x-post but a fitting one!

I'm sweary, but I've mostly managed not to swear much in front of my DC, but nonetheless they've heard the lot tbh. People swear in the street all the time, my childless friends are always letting one slip, and so on.

One friend said "shit" in front of my DC when they were small. Then she was horrified at what she'd done and cried "Oh no, I said shit! FUCK!" :o

Swearing is one of the most gloriously underrated things in life. Fantastic pressure valve and also incredibly descriptive and funny. I'm slightly distrustful of people who don't swear.

But I'm oddly prissy about doing it in front of my DD. It's not so much the respectability thing as I don't care about that. I think hearing her swear would make it seem as if she'd grown up and that would make me a bit sad....

Same here, in the last couple of years since turning 40. I don't think I'm big or clever but I have embraced it and quite enjoy it now if it's used appropriately
Reason? I think I'm just more achey, works physically harder, looks are sliding(along with bits of body), I have less patience and a child with a longterm health condition that requires a lot of help and therefore not enough energy to waste on filtering the shit that comes out of my mouth.
Even my autocorrect knows what to type now

I think you make a good point unsure. It does become a habit, and can be who you're mixing with. On the one hand, I have been around a lot of seriously serial serious foul mouths in the past with work, but didn't pick it up - it made me more anti-swearing if anything as it was just so awful. I'm not really mixing with swearers now, so it's not that. On the other hand, my teen DS says he finds it hard because he's hearing it all the time at school, (no doubt joining in to fit in), and the habit is hard to break when he lands home. He doesn't do too badly as I've said, so I'll ask him for his tips for you!

I was a moderate swearer... then had children and hate children swearing so stopped - "bother" said with feeling can help! But definitely as into middle age the tolerance and caring less what people think seems to have opened the flood gates!! My dc had never heard me swear until age 12 when ds had problems with bullying...after many weeks of mentoring and saying the right things I tackled a bad day with "kick him in the bollocks and tell him to fuck off" Not my finest moment but dc face was a picture and it seemed to help that we are all human ...it does appear to have made it ok though!!!...although it has to be for special occassions (not every sentence!) And i have approved words

I was brought up not to swear & I've never heard either of my parents do it.

I didn't swear when I had small children with impressionable ears but now they are grown up & I'm menopausal & grumpy I bloody love a good swear.

MN has improved my sweary vocabulary immensely, although I don't tend to swear much on here.

Are you me op!? just had this convo 2ith dh the other day.

Good luck with the new job Olivo - hope it helps. It sounds like your colleagues saw you in a new light!

Fitton, I wonder if your swearing will settle down again once your DCs are out of the toddler phase? In my experience it might return once your DCs hit the teen phase! Talking about pregnancy, I do remember that I got very sweary during a (long, difficult, badly managed) labour. Family members were apologising on my behalf and saying 'she's not normally like that'. I was very embarrassed afterwards but in retrospect think the swearing was entirely called for in the circumstances, and wish family rather than apologising had used their energy to push for better care.

Captain, you are expecting a bit much to encourage me to embrace the c word. I am someone (was someone?!) who struggles to call female dogs by the b word, (another one I really dislike), preferring 'girl dog' instead

Having said that, I've gone from expletives of knickers, bum and bother, albeit said with feeling, (like Noob above), to an increasingly regular FFS, so maybe anything is possible with the new me...

Dame, I feel your pain (no pun intended - sorry to hear about the real stuff) and couldn't agree more. In the past I've managed to express the frustration without the expletives, but maybe now I would be that sweary guest on Question Time who has to be ushered out by BBC Security

Having read all the replies - thanks guys - it seems reaching 'a certain age', home/life/work stress, habit and downright pure enjoyment of swearing, all come into play.

I think I can safely blame age and stress, plus too much time on Mumsnet, for my heightened sweary vocabulary!

On a more serious note, it's been quite a reassuring response. I am going to try to stop worrying about it, and even embrace the new sweary me, within reason. No swearing yet, but the day is young.