I use dude only on my son when he's doing something pretty dumb or annoying. Along the lines of "dude, what the fuck?" But without the wtf part.

Dude, srsly?

I have adult offspring. They are all in their 20's now. We are Italian... colorful language along with the accompanying hand motions is sort of a requirement around these parts.

Chris, you're talking about young children - nope. no way. Not unless I hit my hand with a hammer or something, then all bets are off on what word(s) are gonna come outta my mouth.

Mother of fucking GOD...is what would come out of my mouth. Yeah, I'm going to hell, even though that phrase makes no sense at all. :lol:

lol - I posted that in the wrong thread.

Hahaaa, so did I, apparently. Could you fix that for me, or quote me cross-thread or something? I'm so confused! :blush:

nah ... fuggit! lol

Please, don't do this. "Holy Smoke?" srsly, dude? stuff like that sets kids up as targets. At least come up with something more current. Maybe ask the parents what they would prefer him to say?

I took the position*, when my kids were young, of saying that there wer no such things as "bad words" only inappropriate audiences. We went through a lot of discussion about who might not appreciate hearing what words. It did a couple of things, it took the power away from "naughty words" and it helped them consider how others might feel or think of them by the way they spoke.

Occasionally I'll drop the F bomb when driving and my son has made it clear that he doesn't like vulgar language so I try to respect that unless in the heat of driving or working. When he was under four I told him those were special work words and only to be used by carpenters and other tradesmen.

Now I wish I could remove 'like' from their vocabulary.

*Taking a page from Lenny Bruce's book.

The concept of "bad words" is weird. It can be justified for, say, insults like racial epithets, but how does a word stay "bad" when there's no such justification, and we don't even know the real etymology?

A word can't be bad unless everyone agrees it's bad. Not most people agree, it's not a majority rules thing, everyone. You know that ain't happening. :headshake

shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker & tits.

felch.

since he's been able to make it clear to you that he doesn't like vulgar language, and you've demonstrated the success of such clear communication, why don't you try the same with him?

Tell him you don't care for the way he uses "like" (however he/they is/are using it). Show them that respect for simple requests goes both ways.

just a thought.

Oh we talk about that a lot and catch each other using it. Maybe we should start a LIKE jar...