Sugar, Fudge and other replacement swear words

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

Is it OK to use these, or should I just try to stop being a pottymouth, on the basis that the DCs will eventually cotton on and my cover as perfect Pollyanna-style mum (shaky at the best of times, frankly) will be buggered (haven't managed to think of a replacement for that one yet)?

[allytjd]

Like Falkirk, Daisy, my family are from Stirling traditionally arch-rivals of Falkirk so might have to adopt that one. My kids say "nutty fudgkins' which is a marge Simpson Quote and DS2 likes to say "balderdash". goodness knows where he heard that(he is seven).

[threestars]

i say 'oh fffffffffruitcakes'

[SoupDragon]

My mother has never sworn. Not even so much as a "damn". She uses phrases like "spit tiddlers" and "fish hooks" Bless her!

[asicsgirl]

i have said 'man alive!' in these contexts so often that ds1 is convinced it is swearing...

[biscuitsmustbedunkedintea]

I tend to use "Pants!" Not sure how thats going to work with a toddler though, have a feeling she might find it funny

[lackaDAISYcal]

"Oh, Falkirk" is my fave...it has the same guttral sounds as the F word and is just as satisfying as it rolls off the tongue.

Also works well as "get to Falkirk"

not so great as "for Falkirks sake" though!

[HuwEdwards]

Like someone else, I find the replacement words twee. I just say stuff that I don't consider too bad.

'For crying out loud'
'For the love of god'
and mouth the real swear words.

[missorinoco]

fantastic! sugar, fudge, and basket. fu manchu might need to be poached also.
have concerns ds's first word will otherwise be bugger. luckily buggerf*eration will be a little too hard for his first word.

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

Ooh, think I'll pinch the bathroom idea, too - not least because I said "Oh, fudge" today, on dropping a full bottle of sun cream with the lid off (natch) and DS1 (2.3) chortled hugely, as if recognising the innate naughty quality of the word that I had so carefully not said!

[jennifersofia]

shoot! Darn! jeezum! dag nabbit! crumbs! oh botheration!

[UnquietDad]

There is actually a film where Charles Bronson plays a melon farmer. Which, given the propensity for cussing in his films, caused me to laugh uproariously the first time I saw its write-up in Radio Times.

[asicsgirl]

a friend told her dcs they could swear as much as they liked, as long as they only did it in the bathroom. any usage elsewhere met with stern reprisals about 'bathroom language'. apparently it worked. and bathtimes were a scream. i'm def adopting this one too!

[Flier]

I use shoot and gosh. haven't found a replacement for f* yet.

[cyteen]

I completely agree Tinkjon...sadly though am craven enough to want to avoid disapproving stares and bad-mother accusations in the event of my little darling throwing the Anglo-Saxon exclamations around at an inopportune moment.

My family never really cared much about swearing amongst ourselves, so we're all pretty relaxed about it. The first time I said 'fuck' in front of my dad he cracked up laughing, so not exactly disapproving. Mind you, his first word was 'bollocks'

[Tinkjon]

oh my goodness, PMSL at "wankstain" and "melon farmer" - I haven't laughed so much in ages! I am going to adopt 'wankstain' as my personal favourite

You know what though, (and you can all take it in turns to shout at me ) I don't see anything inherently bad in swearing. They are merely words that somebody has decreed as bad and why should real swearwords be any different to the pretend ones? It's how a word is said rather than the actual word, to me (ie, tone more important than content). For me, the whole point is that you shouldn't swear in public, in case somebody is offended, but I honestly couldn't say I'd be bothered if a child swore at home. Well, I would probably be a bit shocked, but I mean that I couldn't think of a good reason to tell them not to do it. I've never believed that that old chestnut about swearing indicating a poor vocab...

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

oh buggery ballbags. that didn't work

[SirDigbyChickenCaesar]

sugar-honey-iced-tea gets used a lot here. especially conversationally.

"that show was sugar-honey-iced-tea wasn't it?"

[elle23]

really bad at not swearing in front of children getting better at keeping quiet rather than saying anything at all.. DS is fond of calling DD "silly goose" which has kind of stuck on me

[elle23]

really bad at not swearing in front of children getting better at keeping quiet rather than saying anything at all.. DS is fond of calling DD "silly goose" which has kind of stuck on me :-)

[theAfkaUrbanDryad]

we say K Rap a lot.

Although unfortunately, usually it's something like, "Oh, that's just crap....um...i mean K Rap."

must try harder.

[asicsgirl]

lol littlelapin, will adopt that one

[asicsgirl]

how bad is 'bugger'? it's the one i find leaps out of my mouth before i have a chance to stop it. ds1 used to say 'oh, budder!' with a grin on his face...

[MogTheForgetfulCat]

Lol at some of these - my word-hoard has just been considerably expanded.

Am somewhat that having the DCs has not curbed my swearing to the extent I thought it would - I had thought I would never, ever swear in front of them, particularly after once seeing a woman being followed home v sulkily by a small boy (maybe 4yo at most) who was shouting "Fuck you, you fucking slag" and other such pleasantries . I was pregnant with DS1 and full of PFB-centred idealism...

I suppose I do think the best thing is not to swear at all (take point made by quattrocento that replacement words tend towards the twee) but have sadly failed, especially in the car. Oh, bollards.