Is It Time to Wash Out Kids' Mouths?

ByABC News
April 15, 2005, 10:17 AM

April 16, 2005 — -- My son was only 4 ½ when he came home from pre-school one afternoon visibly upset.

"What happened?" I asked.

"Alexander called me a really, really bad name."

"What did he call you?"

"I can't tell you," he said, "because you'll be really mad when you hear how really bad the words are."

I tried to comfort him. "I won't be mad if I ask you to tell me."

My pint-sized boy then put his tiny hands on his little hips, looked me in the eye and said:

"He called me a f____g a__hole!!"

After a few moments of hysterical laughter (it was so funny to hear that come out of his mouth), I put my arm around him and said those were really bad words and he must never repeat them. I promised I would call Alexander's mother and tell her that her son shouldn't use language like that at school, and that Alexander should apologize.

Pre-school. He heard those words in Pre-school! I wondered what kids were saying in elementary school.

My son knew how we felt about naughty language at home. It was rarely, if ever, heard. In fact, a few months before this incident I had washed my son's mouth out with soap for using the "f-word".

Yes, parents used to do that (perhaps, some still do). It's not a great thing to do, but it works. That nasty-tasting soap instantly sent a strong and lasting message. My son is grown and now lives on his own in California. I suspect he's using curse words with his friends and at work, but I have yet to hear him use any foul language in my presence.

This column was prompted by a Washington Post news story that reported more and more children are talking in the most disgusting manner to each other, to adults, to teachers. You can hear dirty words in the hallways, on the playground, aboard the bus. And the kids spewing the filthy words are getting younger and younger.

A teacher at a Rockford, Ill., school, Dan Horwich, is quoted in the newspaper as saying: "They are so used to swearing and hearing it at home, and in the movies, and on TV, and the music they are listening to, that they have become desensitized to it."