[magicteetango]

I use it too much but it depends who I am around. If I am really comfortable around them it slips out more. In a professional setting I have never used it. I am really working hard on cutting it out though, I have a 16 month old and a 4 month old so not at all appropriate for little ears.

I cannot believe that woman in Walmart. In public no less! Makes you wonder how she is to the kid in private.

[evenstar]

I use it pretty rarely, and only around close friends when the occasion calls for it, or when I'm home by myself watching a sporting event and my team just made a doozy of a mistake.

By the way, anyone else seen the commercial for booking dot com? It's hilarious! (hope that doesn't come across as advertising!)

[Bacardi1]

I cannot believe that woman in Walmart. In public no less! Makes you wonder how she is to the kid in private.

The problem is that I doubt very many people realize what they sound like expounding in public, never mind private.

[minnie]

No, I don't use it. Yes, I find it offensive. I was married to a sailor....he cleaned up his language the first time he heard that word come out of his beautiful, blonde, blueeyed baby girl's mouth. I also agree with Jetsmom. I fail to see the need to be vulgar. Although I do comfess the word s@#+! Most certainly comes out of mouth, usually in triplicate. I'm working on it. I don't judge anyone else for using it, but I truly wish it wouldn't end up on my facebook page.

[MistyBlue]

I'll admit to getting a laugh out of that Booking! commercial too.

I rarely swore, I have quite a few creative alternatives I've used over the years. Raising girls, I rarely swore around them. I learned that lesson having had a bunch of nieces and nephews before having my own children. You realize how small children are like parrots when your 2 year old niece gets bonked in the head by her 2 month old cousin's swing, rubs her head and quietly mutters, "Son of a b*tch."

Okay, it was funny as heck too. But only in the home and one time. After that, not so funny. And heaven forbid they see you laugh, they'll repeat that endlessly and everywhere.

However now I am swearing more often. Actually, a lot. My youngest child is 19. And she never was one for swearing but does swear now. The Marines bring that out in a person. She's already toning it right back down again though.

My husband is hilarious with language...he does NOT swear daily. He's never said "shut up" even. It's very common to hear him say stuff like Gee Whiz and For Heaven's Sake!
However, for a man who's very careful with his language...he goes from Gee Whiz to the F-Bomb at the speed of light, LOL! And when he's really angry...we call the F-Bomb his Italian Tourettes. Used between every word. Only for a few seconds and then he's right back to Gee Whiz.

But I do use the F-Bomb on a regular basis now. Usually quietly, 95% of the time to myself. It's a pain response for me and I hadn't realized I mutter it regularly until Mr Blue pointed it out to me. Woops.

[shiningwizard255]

I say it probably weekly and I am a huge South Park fan, so no things like that don't offend me in the least. However, I get super annoyed by people who say it at least once per sentence or people that say it around -- or worse, to, like the OP witnessed -- kids.

[ako]

Potty mouth here. It actually got a lot worse through my last job. I worked in finance for a very nice Southern ultra-big-name with a potty mouth. We all developed potty mouth because we could. Kinda like...
What's so effin great about this thing that i need to buy it?
What the eff is this thing?
etc.

It's all in how you say it. It's rude in business or it's informal in a friendly sorta way!

Now my Dad liked to say... "I'll have none of those effin swear words in my g-dam house, you dirty bastards!" (Always said with love.)

And my Mom, "Well, Eff-a-doodle-doo" and "Who wants Star*ucks?"

Yep. Potty mouth.

[Crackerdog]

I don't use it, it's not a word I have a use for. But I don't get offended by other people using it although I have been known to roll my eyes at some of the people who use it every other word in a sentence.

[nevertoolate]

Depends on the day!

[Bacardi1]

I notice a lot of people blaming their use of the word - or "potty mouth" in general - on their careers/jobs. Sort of sad.

[itsagiven]

No, don't use it. Most of my friends don't either. I will walk from a conversation if someone is being overly potty mouthed. I don't mind the odd word here and there, but if it dominates most of what comes out of the person's mouth I want nothing to do with them. FWIW, DH is the same way.

[FreshAir]

Sometimes I wish my education served me better and I could have the discipline to "substitute another player" but alas, when my charming horse is trying to buck me off, I can think of no other phrase than F-U - U f'ng AH. It is deeply rooted in my core and despite my mother imploring me to do better, I cannot.

[BasqueMom]

Amen to Jetsmom post. There is time and place for certain words and like make-up, etc., sometimes less is more. When I do use it, DH knows I mean business.

[lifeishorsesarelove]

As a teen.... I can shut it off, for the most part. It might slip out in surprising situations (ex. call a jump and pinhead kiddo on her pony walks in front of it while I'm 3 strides out).

But do I swear excessively while out with friends? Sure. The f-bomb is my favourite. I did get worse over this past summer, working on the backside at the local racetrack... you hear it so much it just becomes part of language. Could I have made an effort to not swear? Sure, but I get enough cracks from the usual crew for being a track greeny, I don't need anything else for them to make fun of.

But when working at summer camp? Fudgemuffins! At my grandparents dinner table? Not even that.

Its not the language itself, its the situation that you use it in. If its offending someone and they speak up, I'll certainly tone it down.

[cloudyandcallie]

I use it. A lot. I did not curse, except to say "screw" if something went wrong, until I went to work in Atlanta. I went to a religious women's college. People there were appalled that I said "screw" if the coke machine ate my change. My parents did not use the word. All my boyfriends did use it.

Once I went to work on the streets of Atlanta in my mid-20s, I had to use every curse word defensively with my defendants. As a rookie, I was standing in heels and suit on a street in daylight when a guy started dragging me away. I said "sir, get your hands off of me, please" 2 or 3 times, then I told him to get his ******* hands off of me and he did. it was all downhill linguistically from there. Plus all the cops taught me how to curse descriptively even more than the defendants. I don't use the S word or the C word, and instead of bitch (female dogs are smarter than boy dogs so bitch should mean a smart woman) I say witch, but yep, I use the F word a lot. (I was called a bitch so much by defense lawyers--even in front of judges--that I felt that meant that I was doing my job as well as the guys in my office were.) The F word actually is very appropriate for many things. Why use a lot of descriptive words when one word can sum up many situations?

ETA My best friend when I lived in Atlanta used to call my then-boyfriend "F Face." My aussie Coze got so accustomed to hearing Tom called that, that when I'd tell her to go find Tom, she'd wait until I said for her to go find F Face. Aussies know when an appellation is correct and fitting.

[Louise]

I use it when I'm by myself and something absolutely disasterous happens, usually when I've done something incredibly stupid. I'm just plain uncomfortable when I swear. I do get a little bothered when people swear nonchalantly in my presence, but, usually, not to the point where it would ever affect how I think about that person. It does not bother me at all when that person had good reason to swear (like horse standing on foot and refusing to move.) I guess it is probably because I wasn't exposed to swearing when I was growing up, no matter where I was. It just wasn't done.

My favorite swear is, and I'm spelling this phonetically, "soccar ber minnietoe." It's what my Mother used to say and I have no idea what it means, if anything. But, it sounds great ripping out of your mouth in times of stress.

[furlong47]

I swear a lot, especially around close friends. I don't swear AT people. I won't swear around children or when they might overhear, and I don't swear in a professional environment.

[Capall]

Ass is my favorite. I use "arse" around my girls, or "Toín" which is the Irish word for "butt" and shite (with or without the "e") is my other favorite. I pull out the F bomb in rare occasions. I do tend to use "feck" more than well, you know then other one.

[lilitiger2]

Oh yes. Husband is former marine and mechanic, and I'm surrounded by mental health types professionally, not to mention my cients on parole and probation, running substance abuse groups. My 80 yo mom uses it (not very often but when she does, as in, "That.is.f'd.up." wow! Really gets your attention!)

But never in front of people I don't know. And not in public (Hellooooo Joe Flacco!).

My husband also has a friend who just can't say a single sentence, about anything, without it, even when it has absolutely no point ( "so, F, this f'ing chick, can't even f'ing put her f'ing boots on, so we f'ing had to walk all the f'ing way over").Honestly he is my LEAST favorite of my husbands friends (for other reasons as well).

And I agree Windsor1, it does add a certain emphasis; big diff between "I would not go out with him" and "No f'ing way would I go out with him"

[Luseride]

That is the most offensive word there is to me.