A mum blogger has revealed she isn’t really bothered that one of her children has started swearing in front of her.
Mum-of-four, Constance Hall, admitted that she swears in front of her kids for emphasis, but never at anyone.
Up until recently her kids have never sworn, but recently, to Hall’s surprise, her five-year-old son, Arlo, has started to.
“And as it turns out, Arlo’s new mates don’t mind throwing around these particular words and they’re all rocking out feeling cool as fuck coz they said fuck,” Hall wrote on Facebook on 5 July.
“Does it bother me? Not much, meanness would bother me more.”
Hall went on to say she did pull her son up on swearing and he appeared to stop. But she realised it’s not actually that big of a deal.
“I realised something pretty important,” she added. “Arlo is reaching an age where his friends have a greater influence on him than I do. He copies them, loves them dearly and gets empowered by them.
“I read about that once, about how you will come to a time where your children get their power from their mates and there isn’t much you can do about it. You need to let them discover who they are in a group of peers. That’s socialising.
“And it’s beautiful.”
Hall said while it’s important to tell kids not to swear, it’s equally important to teach kids to find friends with similar moral codes to their families.
“That way when they do ignore you and run off with their mates, they are in good hands, maybe cheeky ones, maybe sweary ones, but good ones none the less,” she added.
“Because our household might be a sweary one, but it’s a bloody kind one and it’s full to the brim with love.”
Her post has had nearly 30,000 likes within one week of being posted. Many agreed that it’s down to the parent to choose whether or not they think kids swearing is okay.
“Everyone is different,“one person wrote. “Mine only drink water, but hear me swear daily. Others give full fat coke but won’t swear around their kids.
“So what. We are all different but do our best to love, care and protect.”
Another parent wrote: “I gave my son his ‘swearing licence’. It is to be revoked should any of the terms of agreement be broken. A) You don’t swear at people and B) You never swear in the vicinity of teachers, elders or the general public.
“But if you stub your toe at home on the corner of the couch and want to drop an f-bomb go for gold. I fucking do.”