My kids are growing.

They are getting taller, stronger and they are learning new words to add to their evolving and complex vocabularies.

Two new words that are making the circuit include; crap and sucks and they have quickly become experts at using them in context.

This morning for example, I have already heard; “Oh crap, my toothpaste fell off the brush” (Oh crap I am thinking to myself, there’s a hefty smear I’ll be mopping up later.) Also, “I’ve seen this episode of Shake It Up a hundred times, this sucks.” Or the combo; “We’re having wraps for lunch again? Crap, that sucks.”

I find myself cringing, then correcting, then asking politely, “Could you try to use a nicer way to explain you would rather die than eat another wrap for lunch? We are ALL tired of wraps.” (They do suck)

When I hear other kids using language like this, I first look to the parents and shake my head as though they have let down the universe by raising animals contributing to the end of civilization as we know it.

When my kids do it, I look for those other parents to blame but that pesky Michael Jackson song “Man In The Mirror” is playing overhead and is far too distracting to remember what I was thinking about.

I sometimes, ahem, on occasion, in those very intense moments where self control eludes me, blurt out something in my calmest voice, “Oh crap, I just burned myself with the boiling kettle water.” Or, “Oh crap, I just sliced my toe on an uneven floor tile and I’m probably going to bleed out.” Then I follow with, “That’s going to scar…..which sucks.”

But is this general acceptance of these words just a slippery slope down potty-talk alley?

What words are off-limits in your house?

Do your kids swear?