Swearing in front of your children IS acceptable – according to more than half of parents.
The astonishing findings emerged in a report of 2,000 parents of kids aged 0-16.
The results show 52 per cent are happy to use bad language in the presence of their children.
More than one in five parents with young children said they believed it’s OK to swear in front of little ones as they’re ‘too young to understand’ what’s being said.
It also emerged one third will continue to use expletives even if children know what they mean – as long as they know they aren’t allowed to repeat them themselves.
The study was conducted by ChannelMum.com.
Founder Siobhan Freegard said: “The topic of swearing in front of children is definitely something of a taboo among many parents.
“Before kids learn to talk, parents often feel they can continue speaking the same way they always have.
“But it’s not long before children are picking up bits of language from their parents – and by age two are very adept at parroting words back they’ve heard mum or dad use.”
The research also found nearly two thirds of respondents have sworn in front of their children, or even someone else’s.
One in five believe swearing is harmless, and simply a part of everyday language – and 15 per cent believe kids are likely to hear swear words in the playground at school anyway.
A further tenth of respondents are so used to swearing at work that they find it hard to switch off the bad language when they get home.
One in five have had to apologise to fellow parent for swearing in front of their child, and the same amount have told off another mum or dad for doing so in front of their kids.
There is also some grey area over what exactly constitutes a swear word – with four in five parents believing some words are far worse than others.
Six in 10 believe ‘bloody’ is fine to say in front of young listeners, three times more than would use the F-word.
Despite parents being happy to swear in front of their children, 64 per cent admit to being ‘worried’ about the language their child uses.
But four in 10 have heard their own child swear in front of them, with ‘sh*t’ the most common word uttered.
And half of horrified mums and dads realised that it was a word they’d used themselves which their child was repeating back to them.
ChannelMum.com founder Siobhan Freegard added: “We all know the stresses of parenting can secretly make you want to swear sometimes, so many parents use ‘Swear Swops’ to get the frustrations out but keep the bad language in – and little ears protected.
“Some of the most popular include ‘what the frog’, ‘shitake mushrooms’ and ‘fire truck’, none of which will get you or your kids branded potty mouths.”
Top 20 alternative swear words:
1. What the frog
2. Sugar
3. Oh muck
4. Shitake mushrooms
5. Mothersmucker
6. Oh cheeses
7. Shut the Front Door
8. Fire Truck
9. Bull Spit
10. Oh Ship
11. Fudge
12. Nuts
13. Shoot
14. For freaks sake
15. What the heck
16. Oh Fruitcake
17. Fiddlesticks
18. Oh shucks
19. Blinking heck
20. Goodness, gracious me