Fuck That Shitty Coloring Book—On kids and swearing.

It could be making their life actively worse

This whole "some words are BAD" thing is ridiculous. I allow my child to swear, but of course, with a warning that some adults will take offense, because those adults are overly sensitive about silly things. So my child knows what to avoid around those silly people, but that it's okay around me.

I teach my child that words are tools, and tools are not inherently bad, but we may use them in a bad way. Similar to steak knifes, which are neutral tools, and can be used by people for good or evil.

I cringe every time I hear a parent tell their children that a word is bad.

In the end, my child doesn't swear any more or less than any other child of the same age. Interesting, that.

(Imagine if we did this with respect to all things that we try to hide from our children.)

I have heard all the arguments in favour of swearing and I used to believe them: I no longer do. The problem with swearing is that it becomes an unchecked impulse of aggression -- and eventually a habit that is very hard to break. The least that could be said is that it degrades the quality and content of speech to the point where some people become nearly unintelligible. What do we gain by introducing unnecessary chaos into the ordered system of communication?

Let us look above, not below, for our moral standards.