Would you confront a stranger in public who swore in front of your children?

[Jenna2212]

Picture the scene, you're in a cafeteria, you've treated the children to a cake each. They're playing and you're enjoying a latte. A woman at the adjacent table swears "the film I saw last night was sh**". She says this within obvious earshot of your children.

I've had experiences like this often. I will always confront the person who is swearing and tell them to stop and have respect for others around them, including my children. I don't want my children to grow up thinking that the use of words like that is normal or acceptable, especially in public places.

It's something that seems to have gotten worse in recent years. I was in WH Smith a couple of months ago and I heard staff telling a customer who was arguing with them to "f* o**". They said this loudly, so everyone in the store could hear, including me. Thankfully, I didn't have my children with me on this occasion. It used to be rare to hear people swear, and if they ever did, it was usually in hushed tones or perhaps a rowdy licenced bar on a Friday night. Shop workers certainly didn't do it on the shop floor.

It's sad that society has declined to such levels where swearing in public has become common.

Would you confront someone who was swearing in front of your children and request them to stop? Vote in the poll below and have your say.

Absolutely the same, I would and I have. Never in a stroppy, pearl clutching way but yeah I have done, especially when it's an over the top/look at me kind of way. It's not big and it's not clever, as my nan used to say.

Ok, so I'll just get pulled up at school or in the street for my child using a word we never use at home but he's picked up from some loud mouth random who can't look around their surroundings/just HAS to use those words for all to hear?

If you want you accept a telling off in the street or at school for your child repeating words a loud mouthed random uttered, then crack on.
Personally I'd tell my child not to behave in a way that's against school rules and I'd ignore random loud mouth people telling me off in the street

I’d rather use bad language and be a nice person … did the words hurt you 😂 your children will hear way more than this when you aren’t near them .. cop yourself on .. also the world should just stop for you 😂😂

Also I have four sons and they don’t ever say bad words in school etc .. it’s called parenting and showing them the world and what is right and what is wrong

Yes, it's as if I didn't write anything other than that one line, and didn't bother to mention that the word has fallen out of use, travelled round the world and returned...

Have you considered reading the full post, instead of leaping on one single line?

Well done you, do you feel really clever now? claps

No. I wouldn't. My kids understand that some words can be used by adults but not by children.

Although, I did ask for music dropping the N word, Mother fluffer and B word, to be turned off. We were in the children's play park. The teenagers sincerely apologised.

This is a bit of a side-track, inspired by "should of" being mentioned, and that has always made me cringe when I hear it. But I've been hearing it in the UK for as long as I've been able to speak, it's not American English, it's just incorrect.

What drives me really insane is "off of". I hear that / read it and my head literally explodes.

Yes it might have infiltrated but it isn’t grammatically correct for British English. I don’t personally mind it but it does sound sloppy. It would lose you marks in an English GCSE but I don’t suppose anyone really cares!

Agree re the hideous 'gotten.'

Surely not literally?

No I would not start on a perfect stranger for their crime of swearing in public because I’m not a cartoon version of Ann Widdecombe on drugs.

Well I hope you're ready for people to start critiquing your parenting since that's as much their business as adults choosing to swear in a public place is yours. Especially for something as mild as, "that film was a bit shit".

Also, "Picture the scene"...?? Who do you think you are? Barry Cryer?

It depends on the age of the people swearing - I’ve been known to ask youngsters to mind their language around kids, teens often don’t realise they’re doing it or don’t realise there are kids nearby and it doesn’t hurt to remind them. I’m a teacher though so maybe that’s just me 😂

Well, I think people appear more stupid when they swear rather than when they say 'should of', although both do, of course, show some level of ignorance. In the school I teach at, I would correct a pupil for either.

Fuck no.

I hope you don’t teach English Literature. Quite a bit of swearing in some books, and I don’t think most people would describe Chaucer, for instance, as showing ignorance.

Ha. I do. And I have a PhD and have taught in a university. And we discuss swearing and analyse it.... academically. Re Chaucer... I trust you've heard of a little something called narrative perspective..? 🙈

I don't let the pupils swear. Just like I don't let them use other foul language we read in literature... or for that matter, partake in foul acts we see described in literature. Shakespeare had his characters swear too. He also has his characters commit murder and rape. Newsflash - just because it is written in a book, doesn't mean it is necessarily a good thing to imitate (can't believe I've just had to write that 🤦🏼‍♀️). It is a private school that I work at though and we have high standards and high expectations of our pupils. Maybe the state sector is more lax - don't know.

'Gotten' is an American word and is considered to be incorrect in British English. As an editor I wouldn't let it stand in a British publication. I'd change it to 'become'. But in everyday speech I think it's fine.

Narrative perspective is a pretty basic concept describing the angle from which a story is told and conveys viewpoint, perspective and character. With understanding of that, perhaps, by not letting pupils swear, you're interrupting their creativity and their own narrative journeys. For example, if I was seated in a cafe, telling a friend about a movie, I would, in fact, say it was shit. Because that's who I am, my perception. Another person might say it lacked clarity and focus and the ending was derivative, because that's who they are, their perception. My use of 'shit' would convey that it wasn't even worth a deeper analysis. Who are you to determine whether swearing is necessary for narrative perspective?

It is a private school that I work at though and we have high standards and high expectations of our pupils. Maybe the state sector is more lax - don't know.

You have very odd written sentence structure. I went to a very highly regarded private school. All three of my children went to a different, highly regarded private school. You're talking absolute bollocks and your use of emojis is extremely juvenile. Likely indicative of your 'narrative perspective'.

It’s good to swear. I positively encourage my children to swear and I don’t think they swear enough.

🤣seriously is “shit” even a swear word?

People curse. It's not a big deal. Stop policing people.

They are just words, though. What matters is how they're used. Context and intention matter.
If you stand on a plug and shout 'fuuuuck!' it's very different to shouting 'fuck you!' in someone's face.

Maybe stop listening in on other peoples conversations? They had a private conversation, and said shit, which is to be fair pretty mild, if you then decided to interject yourself into my conversation and tell me off, I’m pretty sure that there would be a few words you wouldn’t like, and they would be aimed at you, and not a conversation with my companion