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Do / did you have a Swear Jar?

(18 Posts)
grNadpa Mon 09-Jan-23 15:17:44

I always made it clear to my family that swearing and vulgar language showed lack of vocabulary. But you'd never know it from my epithets at any construction project.

Not surprisingly, after a "Simpson's" TV episode featured one, the family established a "Swear Jar" where anyone who used a swear word (translation: me) had to contribute twenty-five (U.S.) cents into the jar.

A favorite recollection was when my Mother-in-Law came to where I was ironing, slammed a quarter down on the ironing board, glared at nothing in particular, then said "****".

Yammy Mon 09-Jan-23 15:47:24

My granddaughter does for her mum and dad, she has threatened to bring it to our house the next time she comes. She reckons she will be £'s in if she hangs around granddad.

M0nica Mon 09-Jan-23 15:48:34

No.

Germanshepherdsmum Mon 09-Jan-23 15:52:49

No. My language is much better since I retired.

Doodledog Mon 09-Jan-23 15:52:50

Swearing doesn't show a lack of vocabulary though. They are additional words that people can draw on if required. Some people with small vocabularies use them, but others add them to wide and expansive ones - they are just words.

Fair enough to say that you don't want to hear them, and if a swear box works for you and yours, that's fine; but it seems odd to me that you 'make clear' something that is simply not the case.

Jaxjacky Mon 09-Jan-23 15:56:16

Our local pub used to have one, filled up with 50 pence pieces pretty quickly, money for charity.

grNadpa Mon 09-Jan-23 16:20:03

Doodledog wrote: "but it seems odd to me that you 'make clear' something that is simply not the case."

I stand corrected. I should have written " ... made my opinion clear..." instead of "...made it clear..."

I'll use your reply as a rejoinder in my next construction project.

grNadpa Mon 09-Jan-23 16:51:08

Jaxjacky

Our local pub used to have one, filled up with 50 pence pieces pretty quickly, money for charity.

Does being a little short for the next pint qualify as a charitable need?

biglouis Mon 09-Jan-23 17:04:45

I think it depends on what you count as a swear word. I find people who use the F and C words all the time to be very wearing and avoid them wherever possible. And yes it does show lack of vocabulary if people are constantly talking about the effing this and effing that.

I once went on day relief to another library (when I was a library assistant in the 1960s) and they wanted me to put 2 shillings in the swear tin for saying that the "damned" bus driver put me off at the wrong stop. I told them to grow up. They never got their two shillings.

Judy54 Tue 10-Jan-23 12:59:05

No swear jar in our house it would be permanently full!

Redhead56 Tue 10-Jan-23 16:21:30

No I would be skint if I did and then there would be none for the GCs jar.

Georgesgran Tue 10-Jan-23 20:37:08

Hell no!!

Tommo Wed 11-Jan-23 02:49:34

F*$# no!
I’d be broke.

nanna8 Wed 11-Jan-23 03:57:36

No - it wouldn’t have gone down well at all, very judgey. My kids didn’t swear in front of me, I was the only one in the family who ever swore. Still am.

AussieGran59 Wed 11-Jan-23 05:55:44

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Tommo Thu 12-Jan-23 02:12:55

Things I consider offensive in my house which would warrant a $ or 2 in the jar if I had one. They are far worse than any swearing I might do in response.

“My mother is coming to stay”
“Go tidy up your shed”
“We’re having Xmas her this year.”
“Would you like to come shopping with me?”
“ I’ll cook”
“I think the house needs painting again”
“Why don’t you go back to work.”
“We’re getting a dog”
“I’d never leave you, dear.”

Cs783 Thu 12-Jan-23 02:28:43

Tommo 😂 😂 😂

lixy Thu 12-Jan-23 06:05:33

Tommo apart from the cooking and the leaving my DH could have written your list!

I had a New Year resolution to break myself of the habit of using meaningless verbal tags such as 'actually' 'to be fair' and 'basically'. Work colleagues were using them; I just picked up the habit and really didn't like it. The jar didn't get very full but served as a reminder and so did its job.