Recently there has been a massive increase in the amount of swearing I've heard in my house. One of the first phrases in Afrikaans and the first words I learnt were swear words. In an attempt to try and improve this in my house I've been teaching my kids English swear words and gestures. Now for anybody sat reading this who now thinks I'm a horrible monster, hear me out!
I've taught the kids that raising your little finger is the same as raising your middle finger, and crossing both raised little fingers is off the scale bad. I'm also contemplating telling them that bagpipes is a worse swear word in English than jou ma se p-word. When talking to one of the Germans about my plan she said apfelkuchen could also work (of course means apple cake in German).
It got me thinking as to what makes a swear word so rude? If the kids shout bagpipes at me when they're angry or want to insult me, does that then mean that for a few seconds bagpipes becomes a swear word? Is the meaning behind the word what is the insult or the feeling? If you were to say s*** to a child or in the hearing of a child in England (and probably in any other english speaking country) the child's parents would be far from impressed, but the word is just another one for poo which kids say all the time. My dad used to complain about dog s*** in front of me and my younger brothers even when we were small but he said because he was not using it as a profanity it didn't count.
I wonder what other words you could use?!
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