Poll: Is Swearing Tolerated in Your Home?

From children’s books (Go the F--k to Sleep) to viral YouTube videos (S--t People in L.A. Say) to family-friendly TV shows (Modern Family), bleeped-out expletives seem to be all the buzz lately.

“[A curse word] immediately says this is cutting edge, this is aimed at young people,” TV personality Donny Deutsch said in a recent Today Show segment, shown above. 

Just two weeks ago, South Pas resident and founder of the No Cussing Club, McKay Hatch, to pull a Modern Family episode in which toddler Lily appears to use a bleeped cuss word.

When asking Patch readers via Facebook if they agreed with Hatch’s proactive inquiry, one resident said about the episode, “It reflects real life, so I'm cool with it.”

And he's right. It does happen in real life. It's common for young children to emulate what they see and hear.

Counseling Psychologist Mark Hutten writes on his blog: “Cussing is almost a developmentally normal behavior for kids during middle childhood and early adolescence. For these children, swearing is often a sign of being worldly (i.e., wise and unafraid to be a little ‘bad’).” 

Giving kids attention, such as laughing or asking them to repeat a dirty word, is enough to increase cursing behavior, he says.

Which brings us back to Modern Family.

What did the adults do when toddler Lily's curse word reverberated throughout the entire church? They laughed. A lot. 

Patch Asks: How do you react when your kids swear? At what age, if any, is it appropriate? Is pop culture conveying the message: It’s OK to curse?

Above are videos of the NBC segment, as well as a grandma reading a not-so-sweet book to her grandson.