My impression is that people in North America are very careful not to swear around their kids. I’ve gotten the impression (from pop culture, so dubious quality) that one of the reasons is they’re frequently reprimanded at school for this.
I (born late 80’s) wasn’t raised this way, and I don’t plan on raising my kids that way either. To me, swearing is part of the language and an abstinence only approach to it seems backwards in and for exactly the same reasons the same approach to sex ed does: the trick is in how and when, not “don’t do it, it’s immoral”.
I assume there are people with different strategies out there and I’d appreciate your view on this!
I’ve been only semi-censoring myself with swearing although I didn’t really swear that much before kids. I also don’t take a hard line approach to my kids swearing. If my son says “Fuck” after banging his shin I’m like whatever. If he says it while playing a game I’ll remind him that’s not appropriate and he needs to take a break and calm down. I’d probably only dole out punishment if he repeatedly wasn’t following my rules or cursed at me.
In contrast I would’ve got one hell of a whooping from my dad if I let one slip. I still have the hardest time saying any swear words in front of him and I’m over 40. Conditioning your kids to fear you into adulthood is not a great strategy.