Were you forbidden to say “kill” or “death” as a kid?
Posted by Accomplished-Car4069@reddit | AskAnAmerican | View on Reddit | 359 comments
asking this as a fellow american
i was just thinking of childhood memories and recalled that me and my siblings had to say “K” instead of kill and were not allowed to say anything about dying at all
“drunk”, “alcohol”, “stupid”, and “liar” were also bad words. maybe a bible belt thing? though we didn’t attend church so often after i was maybe 7
Hello_Hangnail@reddit
No but I did spanked for saying heck once
Sorry-Government920@reddit
No not at all
MukadeYada@reddit
No, I'm Gen-X, and no one in the '70s or '80s would have even considered banning these words from their child's vocabularies.
I was forbidden to say "fart," though.
BaseClean@reddit
I'm gen x too. Why weren't u allowed to say fart? That's so weird.
MyUsername2459@reddit
It was seen as a mild profanity, just like "crap".
BaseClean@reddit
Omg. Wow. Really???
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Right?! But "cut the cheese," "let one fly," "drop a bomb," "bust one," and "fire in the hole!" were acceptable replacements lmao!
DJPaige01@reddit
Gen X here. I've banned that word in my house, but they still say it.
Sufficient_Career713@reddit
My boomer mother still thinks fart is a swear word. She literally makes the noise instead of saying it which is far more gross.
boneyjoaniemacaroni@reddit
lol I’ve never met anyone else who wasn’t allowed to say fart! I’m a millennial. My parents replaced it with “smudge”, which was rough as a kid because it took me a while to understand that people didn’t actually know what that meant, although now my sister and I have a fun inside joke of gifting each other things for smudging (like the native practice of dispersing sage smoke). She bought me a whole coffee table book on it a few ways ago.
Magerimoje@reddit
Smudge sounds like a shart, not a fart 😂
I'm genX, also couldn't say "fart". My mother made us say "PG" (as in pass gas) which of course no one else understood. I remember asking my kindergarten teacher "Mrs C may I please go to the bathroom? I need to PG" and getting in trouble for saying "pee" instead of "tinkle" and then I tried to explain, "no, I don't need to tinkle, I need to PG" which of course just made her look confused so she told me to go sit down. As I was walking back to my seat, a very loud fart exited my body, and all the kids laughed at me, and I cried...
houdini31@reddit
I'm Gen X and I wasn't allowed to say fart either or tell my sister to shut up-that was also a no no.
jigokubi@reddit
My grandma would say, "let a smell," which to me is ten times grosser than "fart."
MyUsername2459@reddit
Yup, I'm a late Gen-X. . .and I remember that "fart" was a bad word I couldn't say as a kid.
Amazing how much things change in not too long.
cheyannepavan@reddit
I've heard of people not being allowed to say fart because it's thought to be crude and obscene. I didn't have any banned words other than swearing. I once kind of got in trouble for saying something sucks, which confused me because I don't see anything wrong with it. My parents didn't say I couldn't say it, but they did say to try not to say it in front of them because it's "disrespectful."
acorpcop@reddit
Gen-X checking in. That would have been considered another modern day banned word: "retarded".
daddy_autist@reddit
Gen Z. Also wasn’t allowed to say fart.
sarcasticorange@reddit
Saying stupid wasn't an issue, but calling someone stupid was - at least when young and around the parental units. When the parents weren't around we sounded like Tanner from the Bad News Bears.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Same! I'm a Xennial. It's hilarious, because fart is one of the actual medical terms!
LunaArtGal@reddit
Yeah, I'm also an early Gen-Xr and was only ever lightly scolded for saying "crap" once (wasn't lady-like) and calling my little sister a "bastard". I'm like, they say it on TV, but I didn't realize what meant at the time😅
IPreferDiamonds@reddit
I'm Generation X. Yeah, I couldn't say fart either. But all the other words OP listed were fine to say.
HooptyDooDooMeister@reddit
I grew up very conservative. I’ve heard words like “butt” or “shut up” being on par with the F word. Parents banning everything from Smurfs, Power Rangers, SpongeBob, and Harry Potter.
Not once in real life nor even online have I ever heard something like this before.
Sufficient_Career713@reddit
I went to a Christian summer camp and we referred to our butts as “howevers”
Illustrious_Bobcat13@reddit
That is so cute. Lol
The one thing about banning things: it does drive creativity(to find a different way to say it).
HooptyDooDooMeister@reddit
This is really clever, and I wish I knew about this 40 years ago. Lol
FunkySalamander1@reddit
I grew up with basically all the rules you listed. I have also never heard of not being able to say kill or death.
Accomplished-Car4069@reddit (OP)
aw man now i’m embarrassed
____ozma@reddit
My neighbors were super Catholic and I hung out with them a lot. They banned the words "death" and "kill" and when we played video games we had to say that our characters got "zapped"
HooptyDooDooMeister@reddit
No worries! You can’t control who your parents are. Thank you for sharing. I find it interesting, especially as a parent now who has to make decisions that my parents once had to do for me.
burlingk@reddit
No need to be embarrassed. Everyone is used to the idea that some parents had weird rules. \^\^;
whatevendoidoyall@reddit
We weren't allowed to say 'shut up' either even though my family wasn't conservative. I did grow up in the Bible belt though.
Ginger630@reddit
No
pkupku@reddit
I grew up with two parents who were both veterans of World War II. The Vietnam war was on television every night and they were talking about the number of soldiers and civilians killed. It was a very common topic.
Curse words were not allowed either on TV or in the home, the death was allowable and necessary, given the events of the time.
The US military death rate is so low now that people who didn’t grow up in that era are mercifully spared the experience of every family knowing some neighbor who was killed or maimed in war, on behalf of some other country on the other side of the world.
GreenBeanTM@reddit
Gonna parrot what everyone else is saying and say I’ve never heard anyone not be allowed to say these words at all before. Saying something like “I’m gonna kill you” would have probably gotten little me in trouble, but not just the word in general.
Same goes for drunk/alcohol (although I was also one of the kids who thought “drinking and driving” meant any drink, so I wouldn’t have even known those words to use them) and liar. Stupid was a “mean word” so I wasn’t supposed to say it but it wasn’t on the same level as swears.
According-Couple2744@reddit
Pregnant. I don’t think I ever said pregnant in front of my dad until I was 30 years old and pregnant with my first child.
Accomplished_Cell768@reddit
Was it that they wanted you to use euphemisms, or just pretend the concept didn’t exist?
DJPaige01@reddit
Interestingly, my parents never told me not to say it, they just didn't say it. They always used the term "expecting." My 16 year old cousin "got herself in trouble."
CamiJay@reddit
No but most parents would probably draw the line if they overheard their kid say something like “I’m mad and when I get mad it makes me want kill (some other child’s name).”
Diligent_Gear_8179@reddit
That's some good old Bible Belt Bullshit.
Present_Intention193@reddit
My kids (31f), and (23m), were not allowed to call anyone “stupid” or to say ”shut up“ to each other. And thus they don’t use those words much even as adults. I find those words to be demeaning and I don’t like them, and they’re unnecessary. My husband and I also never called them names or spoke down to them. They’re both amazing human beings and I’m not sorry we had those rules. And I’m not a conservative, I’m a liberal that doesn’t belong to any church. You don’t need religion to tell you what’s right and wrong.
Loud_Ad_4515@reddit
We couldn't say "hate," "can't," or "war." (GenX raised by Midwestern parents in Texas)
Any-Instruction-3373@reddit
I was not forbidden to say those words. I grew up in the South, but we were / are liberal atheists, so maybe that's why.
I remember my daughter coming home from middle school and telling me Hobo was considered a bad word. I found that funny and ended up having a really long playlists of songs with Hobo in the title.
PrincessWolfie1331@reddit
Kill was fine, but I wasn't allowed to use curse words or "almost" curse words. So, dang and darn were out, as was gosh, shucks, etc.
Now, my dad is fine with everything but the f word and the c word. I don't like the c word, but I really have to watch not using the f word.
WILDMAN1102@reddit
I'm from New York.
My parents didn't care what I said as long as I wasn't being mean to somebody. Like, I could say "Oh shit!" as an exclamation and not get in trouble, for example.
At school, all of the usual swear words and slurs were obviously forbidden. The only weird one was "suck" was banned. Like, you could get in trouble for saying "That sucks."
riversroadsbridges@reddit
I was allowed to say kill but not hate or stupid. This was BEFORE school shootings became a big concern for Americans. One kid telling another "I'm gonna kill you" was just a throwaway statement of frustration, but "I hate you" and "you're so stupid" were specific mean insults and got us in trouble.
rcjhawkku@reddit
When I was a kid the nightly news featured a count of how many Vietnamese and Americans were killed that day. So actually saying killed and dying just didn’t seem to matter.
Open-Committee-998@reddit
Def a Bible Belt thing. Having lived there for a while, this is not that unusual. This is weird everywhere else tho. I wasn’t allowed to say crap (nor were my friends), listen to non religious music, or watch tv shows that had magic. Growing up was H-E-double hockey sticks.
iampatmanbeyond@reddit
I think your parent or parents grew up with an alcoholic parent.
cheekmo_52@reddit
No. Mind you, I’m old. Back in the 70’s-80’s political correctness wasn’t really a thing. But my siblings and I would threaten to “kill” each other pretty regularly when we argued. We also had Army men kill each other when we played; played “cowboys and indians” that “killed” each other, cops and robbers that “killed” each other too.
Saltwater_Heart@reddit
No
Secure-Ad9780@reddit
I can't stand when people are afraid to say death, died. Instead they say stupid things like "he's deceased" or "he's passed". When I first heard that he passed, here in the South, I wondered what he passed by. I hate euphemisms, for death, bodily functions, parts of the body and sex. The reality is that everything alive today will someday die.
Dream-Livid@reddit
No, things were more liberal then.
ForeverExplore15@reddit
I could say kill as long as I wasn't saying it as a threat. Death and Dying weren't off limits at all. Saying Stupid or Dumb about a parent/sibling was punishable by a big mouthful of vinegar.
Rredhead926@reddit
Umm... no... I grew up Catholic and went to Catholic school. None of those words were forbidden in our house or in school.
ATaxiNumber1729@reddit
As someone who grew up in a Catholic household, we were not allowed to say hate, kill, etc. Just saying as someone who spent years in family group and CCD
Yanna_of_the_Forest@reddit
In my family, we weren't aloud to say we hated someone, so we just "immensely disliked them" or "hated the actions, not the person" (usually to stop us kids from saying we hated our parents or each other)
ATaxiNumber1729@reddit
Same…maybe I’m wrong but that’s how it should be. Hate is a very strong word. I don’t really hate people, but I do immensely dislike them (let’s point this at politicians)
jprennquist@reddit
To clarify, are you talking about curses? Such as "I'll kill you if you eat the last piece of pizza!" Or "I hate that guy who cut me off in traffic." Or are you saying that the very words were forbidden?
I also grew up extremely Catholic and these words were not at all forbidden. But it might be considered a "sin" to say or even think them in the contexts that I said. I am not arguing this point, just explaining it. It is considered the same thing as murder to want someone dead. And feeling hate is also the same thing as murder. I know, I know, I know. Strange then how many Christians and Catholics say and do and presumably think so many hateful things about others.
ATaxiNumber1729@reddit
I think your upbringing may have been stricter than mine but yes, kill and hate are absolutes so we were taught to not use them. When minor squabbles happened between siblings, we came up with creative ways to say “I’ll beat your ass!” Haha (of course we didn’t use ass)
macoafi@reddit
I get the threats and “I hate you” being banned, but you couldn’t say “there’s a new hate crime law” (because of the word “hate”) or “she was killed in a car accident” or “Abraham Lincoln was killed by John Wilkes Booth” (because of the word “kill”)?
ATaxiNumber1729@reddit
Oh, of course not (I like your Lincoln example haha). The prohibition was on yourself saying you kill/hate
jprennquist@reddit
Just want to add that as a parent myself my kids are not allowed to say "I hate you." Or "I hate" and the name of a person. They can say that they "Hate Mondays" or something else they might hate. But I also explain why I don't want them to use that word as a curse. I also believe that this kind of curse or curse word causes more damage to the person saying it than the intended person they are saying it about. And not necessarily in the sense that it is considered a sin according to the Bible. It's that carrying around those feelings of hatred has a real cost. It is to be avoided.
lemonprincess23@reddit
Same. In fact it was kinda the opposite for us. I remember a kid did a speech on a battle in WW2 and the kid said something like “the battle resulted in 12,000 American umm… passing away” or something like that, and the teacher immediately stopped him and said “no, say killed, do not sugarcoat these events. They were awful and people died, and you need to treat it with the gravity it deserves”
Teacher probably had a heart attack by now with how may people use the term “unalive”
Yanna_of_the_Forest@reddit
A lot of the "unalive" usage originates from YouTube content blockers and other monetized sources. YT has actually refined their parameters so those talking about death and suicide don't necessarily get demonetized or blocked, but those who are promoting it will, and those who have a video focusing only on it might be demonetized but not blocked.
The word is still used a lot online and has become more akin to slang than any self censorship like with curse words.
I don't know any parents or teachers who teach those censoring of kill, death, murder, or suicide. Maybe restrictions on context and being mindful of others, but not outright changing the word itself. Usually banned words are just curses, slurs, and sometimes parent humor based ones like the "b-word" meaning bored
Lothar_Ecklord@reddit
Same. Forbidden words were shit, fuck, damn, bitch, bastard, ass, crap, and fart.
macoafi@reddit
I’m just imagining “my mom says I have to skip the D word when reciting the Apostle’s Creed.” “The what word?” “You know…was crucified, the D word, and was buried.”
neverdoneneverready@reddit
Grew up the same and couldn't say Shut Up or the N word. And of course regular swearing.
FWEngineer@reddit
Same. We went to church every week, we weren't allowed to swear, I never heard my parents swear at all, but we could say those words. We also lived on a farm, pretty much had to say words like that on occasion. We saw death, sometimes we caused death (deer hunting, harvesting a pig or cow, or for euthenasia). That was part of life and we weren't protected from essential aspects of it.
Excellent_Counter745@reddit
Jewish and no forbidden words except dirty ones. But my parents would spell them. For a long time I thought "sob" was a dirty word.
Or say them in Yiddish. Most of the Yiddish words I know are curses.
Gaming_with_batman@reddit
No? Thats fucking dystopian. The only words that should ever be off the table are slurs against groups you aren’t a part of.
dinkeydonuts@reddit
Yup. Grew up very stifled.
Romirose86@reddit
I wasn't allowed to say "lie" either. It had to be "telling stories "
toodleroo@reddit
I wasn’t allowed to say shut up
Devee@reddit
No, I was allowed to say anything as long as it didn’t target people
Diligent-Touch-5456@reddit
not really, especially since we lost so many members of the family while I was a kid.
cowgrly@reddit
This was not a thing for us.
shelwood46@reddit
Nope. I wasn't allowed to say slurs, but other than that, my mom did not care, even about curse words (my parents split up when I was 6). I was raised in WI.
Word2DWise@reddit
No.
geri73@reddit
I was forbidden to say herpes.
groundhogcow@reddit
We used all words, so long as they were used in the appropriate context.
GuitaristExplorer@reddit
No.
I couldn’t have many toy guns though. Water guns were ok, nothing too realistic. I also couldn’t watch The Simpsons.
LadyInCrimson@reddit
No just no curse words in front of my mom until 18 I could cuss just not in front of her or other adults.
Juliet_1982@reddit
Yes, I didn’t realize this was so uncommon. I could say death but my parents didn’t like me saying kill. And now I don’t really like it when my kids say it. I wasn’t allowed to say stupid or liar either. My parents were liberal actually. My mom was from South Carolina but I grew up in California. She always said the words but didn’t sound nice and there were better words to use. That stuck with me. Although with “kill” I think it was because kids say it like “I’m going to kill you” and she always said you should never put things like that out into the world, even if you don’t mean them. Same with calling someone a liar. That was a very HUGE accusation in our house.
4Q69freak@reddit
George Carlin said we should replace the word kill with the work fuck in TV and movies although it would make westerns a little weird “Sheriff we’re gonna fuck you and we’re gonna fuck you real slow!”.
morganalefaye125@reddit
That's funny because the word liar was used a lot in my household. If I was wrong about something that I thought was fact, I was told I was a liar because it wasn't true
Juliet_1982@reddit
My mom thought calling someone a liar hurt their feelings and was untrue most of the time. You were only a liar if you lied with the purpose of deceiving someone in a harmful way. So calling someone that was like looking them in the eye and calling them a Jerk. My mom said calling someone that lowered their opinion of themselves so you had to be careful when you wielded that weapon.
morganalefaye125@reddit
She was accurate. It definitely did. That definition of lying is the same as mine. My parent believed that if you told something untrue, even if it was unintentional, that you are a liar
PajamaPossum@reddit
Yeah, I remember parents pushing back against the phrase “I’m gonna kill you”. But the word wasn’t forbidden. It was fine to say, like “don’t feed the dog chocolate, it could kill her” or something like that.
Accomplished-Car4069@reddit (OP)
oh my god finally someone who experienced it too
Juliet_1982@reddit
Maybe this is actually more of a southern thing. Because my mom didn’t like the words because they didn’t sound polite. Like, she didn’t want me playing outside with other kids and saying “hey stupid, you’re such a liar, I’m going to kill you”. She would have died of embarrassment assuming all the other mothers were looking at her and saying “well, bless her little heart”
whatevendoidoyall@reddit
This is how my mom was. She was also liberal but was real big on manners and being proper.
Juliet_1982@reddit
Yup we were super liberal. My mom was really smart though. She said that, as a woman, I would always be climbing out of a hole a men didn’t have to deal with, and the way I acted and talked could make that hole deeper. She never said it was fair, but she wanted me to have good habits so I wouldn’t be perceived poorly. To this day, I have an excellent filter with bad language and I can cuss like a sailor with my friends, but not a single bad word is going to slip out in front of my kids.
FWEngineer@reddit
We couldn't say "oh my god". That was definitely taboo.
Juliet_1982@reddit
Same here! I also grew up in the 80s. Couldn’t say “oh my god” or “god damnit” and those were everywhere then. Also in the 90s what people did the whole “oh that’s so cute… NOT”. I was not allowed to do the NOT thing.
saltyfrenzy@reddit
I’m a liberal from New England and I don’t like my kids saying “I’ll kill you” it sounds so jarring.
My kids are only 4 and 5 but they say it sometimes and it’s really jarring to hear as a parent.
Death is fine. So is kill in any other context. But we don’t let them say “kill you”.
Also, as an adult if you tell someone seriously you’re going to kill them, that’s a crime. So not the worst thing to forbid kids from saying it!
clairejv@reddit
I mean, there's a difference between simply saying the word "kill" and saying "I'm going to kill you."
Juliet_1982@reddit
Right but I think to my mom, it was better to just not have you say it at all so it would never be said in the wrong context.
Educational-Ad-385@reddit
No. Grew up in the 50s and 60s and TV was full of killing and death. If they were said as a threat to a living person or hatefully, that would not have been allowed though.
NoFleas@reddit
We were just taught not to talk about weird shit like killing and death but the words weren't off limits.
But we weren't allowed to say stupid or even doodoo. I don't remember exactly why doodoo got nixed but there was an incident where I said, 'but birds DO do that' talking about some behavior of a bird and I got snitched on by a step-sibling for saying 'doodoo' and I actually got a spanking!! That injustice has stayed with me my entire life but I wholly blame the evil stepsister and have enjoyed from afar her difficulties in life with karma as an adult. There were many more words that were off limits but nothing atypical.
donuttrackme@reddit
No. Just actual swear words.
kitzelbunks@reddit
I don’t know how old you are, but they gave us a lot of toys that were like cap guns, squirt guns, fake swords, and kids would shoot people and tell them they were dead. My relatives said that, but they did not mean it, and we said it to one another. ( e.g., “Mom is gonna kill you.”) I do not live in the Bible Belt, although being an Evangelical got popular in the 1980s, and they are everywhere now.
My entire family, except one grandmother, drank. I often say the older ones drank all day but did not appear drunk, and it was like the Middle Ages. They never saw a glass of water unless it was in my hand. I was always thirsty.
It was rude to say someone was stupid or a liar, unless they were actually lying, but it wasn’t forbidden because our “parental units” didn't spend much time with us. (Gen X)
Scatman_Crothers@reddit
People who restrict their kids language beyond standard curse words are not doing their kids any favors. Teach your kid to process and respond to the ugliness in this world. That's how character is built.
MadMadamMimsy@reddit
The only forbidden words were curse words at our house.
tai-seasmain@reddit
Not outright forbidden, but there was restrictions/suggestions on use.
I was born in 1988, and when I was little kids would often casually say "I'll kill you!" when mad, and it wasn't seen as serious, but I remember when I was in middle school right after the Columbine school shooting (the first major headline event of its kind) and we were told not to say that because they had to take things like that more seriously (at least in Massachusetts where I'm from).
As for "death/dead/die/etc.", it wasn't forbidden but is often still to this day considered too direct and insensitive to say while people are still acytely grieving the person or even years later to someone who was very close with the deceased. I learned that it's considered better to say "passed away/on" in those scenarios. If you were talking about someone on the news or in history it was usually more acceptable to simply say that they died.
Biteme75@reddit
No. However, we were forbidden to say anything even close to a cuss word, such as 'piss' or 'poop'. Only 'urinate' and 'defecate' were permissible.
Decent_Cow@reddit
No, but my mother didn't like me saying "I died" in Mario. It was Mario that died.
skadi_shev@reddit
No. Grew up in what would probably be called a fundie family nowadays (maybe fundie lite) but we didn’t have those rules. We couldn’t say things that were considered rude or crass, like “sucks,” “shut up,” “I have to pee” (had to say “use the bathroom” or something similar), “piss/pissed off,” “fart,” “crap,” etc. But “kill/death/die” would only have been off limits if it was part of a threat or something lol.
decorama@reddit
"Cancer" was a word you avoided, but if you had to say it, you had to whisper.
DMGlowen@reddit
When I was a teen in the mid 80's "swearing/foul language" was highly discouraged.
gottarun215@reddit
No, not normal. None of those were banned for me or anyone I knew.
Live-Ad2998@reddit
So that is why we have to say unalive now.
Conservative protestant here. No sweating, gee, gosh, golly were forbidden as replacement words.
I remember a small family gathering and my dad teased me about this boy who I didn't like. Nothing wrong with him. I just wasn't interested. I said I'd rather he was dead so I wouldn't have to hear about him any more. My aunt was shocked and said. Etty, just say he is not your cup of tea. My one and only lesson in being more genteel. She was the best.
mentalincontinence@reddit
Quite odd. If I don’t want my child to use a certain word, replacing that with another word doesn’t address the cause. Why fear words? Teach children when and where it’s appropriate to use words.
“I said HAT.” - Ant-Man
KaetzenOrkester@reddit
No, but interestingly, my high school French teacher (a French war bride to give you an idea of her age and generation) refused to conjugate mourir ("to die") for us. She would only write it on the chalkboard.
michelle427@reddit
No we just weren’t allowed to say ‘Shut up’. My mom hated that phrase.
Inspi@reddit
That sounds really odd.
mylocker15@reddit
No but we went through a time when we were not supposed to say help unless we really needed help. So if we ever play acted cowboys or something it would be oh no assistance please I have been shot in the gut, can I get an aid with a remedy please. Assistance dang it you got me Black Bart…
DMTrious@reddit
Hate was a big one. We weren't allowed to say we hated anything
Magerimoje@reddit
Same in my house.
I tried pushing my mom's buttons by saying "I hate serial killers" (it was the 80s, we had a lot of serial killers) or "I hate that some kids go hungry" when watching that heartbreaking 80s commercial about kids in Ethiopia.
Even in those situations, my mother had the audacity to say "hate is too strong a word to ever use. No one should ever have any hate in their heart"
Gross mom. Hate is absolutely the correct feeling for some things.
Push_the_button_Max@reddit
Yep- my mom would say, “let’s save the word “hate” for things that are truly hateful, like slavery or the Holocaust.”
She disliked “stupid” and “shut up,” as well- I’m in my 50’s, and I still don’t use those three words.
CreepinJesusMalone@reddit
That's the only one I can think of lol. And it was really only my mom that had a gripe about it.
Shut up was only an issue if it was being shouted at another kid like a classmate/friend or cousin or something and an adult overheard. I assume then it was more about being rude/shitty than the phrase itself.
Like, I'll scold my three kids for shouting at the other ones to shut up.
Kids of any age saying stuff "sucks" wasn't near as coming in my memory. Seems pretty standard for everyone nowadays.
quietly_annoying@reddit
I wasn't allowed to say the word hate as a child, we had to say "I dislike cauliflower." We also weren't allowed to say kid, because "our mom wasn't a nanny goat." But my evangelical mom was generally ok with the words kill or death... although, we would have been admonished for saying something like "I'm going to kill you!" when chasing a sibling around the house.
JamminJcruz@reddit
My gramma smacked me for saying, “What the…?” when something crazy happened.
She said she knew what came after that.
I really didn’t know but as I got older I knew what she meant.
I didn’t grow up normal American. My family is imported. Maybe that is normal American. Whatevs
Accomplished-Car4069@reddit (OP)
lmao this reminds me of how i used to get scolded for saying dang because “its meant to replace damn so don’t say that either”
Juliet_1982@reddit
Yes!!!! This!!! My mom said replacement words were the same as the real thing. Like Friggin. And we certainly could say “god damn” but I wasn’t allowed to say GD either. When I got older I was allowed to say gosh darn.
Devierue@reddit
Heh, my parents were super chill about vocabulary, but 'frickin' rose to popularity when I was in middle school and drove my mom bonkers
Finally one day in exasperation she goes 'OMG it's a stupid replacement word, you might as well just say fuck'
And that was the day I stopped even getting side-eye for my colorful fucking vocabulary
AlexisRosesHands@reddit
I don’t like this line of reasoning at all. It teaches children that they shouldn’t express their emotions. It’s not teaching that curse words shouldn’t be used in polite conversation, it’s condemning all exclamations. This is detrimental to development. We need to be able to use language to express our emotions - all of them. Surprise, frustration, sudden pain from injury - all of these warrant exclamations and replacement words are the polite way to handle it.
Juliet_1982@reddit
I agree that expression is important but I didn’t mean to give them impression that I wasn’t allowed to express myself.
I in fact grew up in a house where we were loud and open and allowed to express our emotions very freely. But my mom thought language like friggin and god damn actually didn’t express anything as well as words like “ouch” and “that hurt” and “I’m frustrated” and “I’m angry”. I think you got the wrong impression. For my house , it wasn’t about suppressing emotions, it was about using better words to express them. If I accidentally dropped something and said “damn” I didn’t get out in time out, I just got a size way look. My mom was just big on manners and thought certain expressions were wasted words. Honestly, I had replacement expressions I used like fudge and carp instead of crap which were apparently “acceptable” so I never thought about it much.
FWEngineer@reddit
my mom would say "fudge" a lot. I never realized it was a replacement word until I was out of college.
Juliet_1982@reddit
Yeah. I was allowed fudge… maybe because it was cute?
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Well, oh, fiddlesticks, then!
wugthepug@reddit
Similarly I had a teacher who wouldn’t let us say suck because apparently it’s short for sucks dick lmao
Accomplished_Cell768@reddit
This reminded me of a time I mentioned “the fat guy” from the Austin Powers movies. My mom thanked me for not saying his full name. I had no idea “bastard” was a curse word, I just couldn’t remember his name lol
_pamelab@reddit
Aside from the obvious swear words, no one policed my language when I was a kid in the 80s. This all sounds really strange to me.
Smorgas-board@reddit
No. That’s bizarre
LittleSubject9904@reddit
It sounds like you and your siblings were annoying the hell out of your mom, so she made up language rules on the fly.
Prairie_Crab@reddit
We siblings weren’t allowed to say “I hate you” to each other or our parents.
We also weren’t allowed to say butt or crap or any other rather coarse words.
YOUTUBEFREEKYOYO@reddit
No.
cogabig409@reddit
No, but I wasn’t allowed to say “stupid” or “shut up”. I was raised very conservative Catholic in Alabama.
funktion666@reddit
This is hilarious. Sorry your parents were so ridiculous and strict. They sound a little cuckoo.
These-Ad5332@reddit
Yes. Kill, death, stupid, shut up, screwed, b.s., etc.
I grew up in Utah though.
ghost-church@reddit
We weren’t at “unalive” yet when I was a kid.
RatonhnhaketonK@reddit
No lmao
Dax_Maclaine@reddit
Nope these were all fine, although my parents didn’t want me to call other people stupid
Embarrassed_Wrap8421@reddit
Nope. Mom and Dad always said they weren’t censors. We still grew up pretty polite.
Fangsong_37@reddit
Nope. I was 5 years old when I played Dungeons & Dragons for the first time. As long as I wasn't using "cuss words," my parents didn't ban me from saying most things.
brak-0666@reddit
Aside from profanities, the thing I wasn't allowed to do was yell for help unless it was an actual emergency.
Current_Poster@reddit
I mean people said "passed on" and stuff but nobody forbade those.
WritPositWrit@reddit
Lol no
cmcglinchy@reddit
No, I’ve never heard of that.
MrsZebra11@reddit
I was in big trouble if I said something like "I'm gonna kill you" or "I wish you were dead" out of anger to my sister or something. We weren't banned from the words specifically though.
VirtualFallacy@reddit
Nope. My parents didn’t like some words (like my brother or I calling things "stupid") and didn't like us swearing but that was about it. They also both swore quite a bit (not in a bad way, just how they talked) and didn't care if we did once we were teenagers as long as it wasn't directed at other people.
Ironically I still don't swear much at all (IRL), but my brother swears like a sailor. But yeah they didn't police our language too much beyond making sure we had manners and were always polite to other people and each other. Not saying "kill" seems absurd to me, we're all going to die someday it's weird to be that uptight about it.
We also aren't a religious family so maybe that had an effect as well.
SiriusWhiskey@reddit
I grew up on a farm and taught to cuss like a sailor. We didn't mince words. My father hated that
nooobee@reddit
I've never heard of this in my life. I gather your parents really disliked the words kill or death
Madrona88@reddit
Nope. But my parents really didn't edit me either. Only for politeness please, thank you, sir ma'am. And outright swear words.
Avbitten@reddit
no, the intent matters more than the word itself
DynamiteStorm@reddit
The only banned words were curse words. Parents thought it made you sound uneducated. Turns out loads of overeducated /intelligent people curse. But no other banned words. Mother was left of liberal.
mikeeele33@reddit
No.
Communal-Lipstick@reddit
My parents didnt allow us to say things that were hateful so it would have depended on the context.
Buncai41@reddit
No. Words are just words. I was taught growing up that it only mattered how they were used. I wasn't allowed to put people down, call them names or cuss at them. I also grew up in the bible belt in the 90s.
No_Discipline5218@reddit
Grew up catholic in the 70s, on your list "stupid" was the only one my parents didn't allow. Other than that~ "hate", "sucks", and curse words were the only words that we weren't allowed to say as kids. Oh and "she goes..." instead of "she said..." would get us corrected.
rando439@reddit
We weren't allowed to say kill, suck, OMG, damn, stupid, dumb, pity, or hate if the thing being hated was a living thing. That last one was considered the absolute worst and would result in severe punishment.
Any other words said in the same tone as one would normally use a swear word were also out since the intent was considered the same.
Standard-Jaguar-8793@reddit
You couldn’t say “pity”? I think that’s the most extreme example here.
Accomplished-Car4069@reddit (OP)
i couldn’t say suck for a long time as well. i still don’t understand that one
boneyjoaniemacaroni@reddit
I once got grounded for three months in seventh grade when I got caught saying suck. Stupid and hate and oh my gosh also weren’t allowed, but my parents were weirdly cool with violence.
oliviamrow@reddit
Wait, you weren't allowed to say something sucked, or you weren't allowed to say suck at all, like I sucked on the straw or the popsicle or whatever?
I assume it was banned because of potential sexual connotation but banning it even from legitimately nonsexual use seems wild.
rando439@reddit
My grandma forbade it because it sounded crass, so that was definitely part of it for her. My parents because it was a general complaint word. Any words that were only used to complain or that were a stand in for an actual swear word was also out. So no crap, darn, shoot, drat, fiddlesticks, etc, either. The use of a tone of anger and frustration was also out of the question even if no forbidden words were used because the intent was the same to my parents.
oliviamrow@reddit
Suck is not inherently a complaint word, or even a sexual one, those are specific uses. So I understand banning those uses, but not the word.
Water gets sucked through your plumbing pipes. You might suck your finger after you prick it on a needle. A person might suck all the oxygen out of the room with an overbearing presence. None of those uses are crass. I guess the last one is negative but not because of the word itself.
That's the point I'm trying to make.
rando439@reddit
I was explaining their logic in deeming that a "bad word," not saying that I agree that their logic was correct.
oliviamrow@reddit
Ok
byebybuy@reddit
Pity? Why that one?
rando439@reddit
It was considered adjacent to hate because my parents believed pity was looking down on someone. Empathy and sympathy were encouraged, but never pity.
houdini31@reddit
Not in the least but I grew up in the 80s and we didn't give a shit about any of that
MacNeal@reddit
No, why would a word be forbidden? It's how a word is used, not the word itself in whether it should be said.
Nothing was "forbidden", but you were expected to act and talk like a civilized person.
rosietherosebud@reddit
Only words I wasn't allowed to say were swear words, slurs, & sucks
x0_Kiss0fDeath@reddit
Is the context of not saying "Kill" as a 7 year old that you can't tell someone that you're going to kill them? Because, if so, that seems fair. But the idea of not being able to talk about death at all is definitely not what I experienced. I don't remember being 7 and using words like "drunk" or "alcohol", but don't recall it being specifically forbidden. "Stupid" wasn't forbidden, but it was made a point that it wasn't nice or acceptable to call a person stupid (and I guess similar for "liar").
Oldy_VonMoldy@reddit
My mom forbid us from saying “Hate”.
AintPatrick@reddit
No. Seems odd.
NekoArtemis@reddit
More than odd
Dr_Watson349@reddit
Bizarre even.
thecat627@reddit
Kinda angering to be honest.
thecat627@reddit
The fuck kind of question is this, that’s rather bizarre that simple words are forbidden.
So glad my parents didn’t keep me or my speech on a leash my whole life, I’m better for it.
anneofgraygardens@reddit
no. The only phrase my mom (unsuccessfully) tried to ban was "shut up".
rutherfraud1876@reddit
Not forbidden in most contexts but do have some knowledge of other parents treating it as a bad word - can't recall if it was my evangelical friend's mom or a Jewish friend's parents (I know the latter really didn't like "hell")
OleMaple@reddit
I grew up in the Bible Belt and have never heard of anyone having to do this.
Great_Chipmunk4357@reddit
Not by my parents, but I remember a holier-than-thou aunt telling me not to use "kill."
Some_Cicada_8773@reddit
I'm also from the belt, and no lol never had rules like that. I knew other kids that had weird word rules though
Limberpuppy@reddit
I wasn’t allowed to say hate.
sneezhousing@reddit
Nope that wasn't a thing for anyone I know
TiaxRulesAll2024@reddit
No. My parents were not raised in a crazy cult
doublerainbow2020@reddit
I’m in the Bible Belt and I’ve never heard of anyone banning these. I think it was just your family.
SirFelsenAxt@reddit
No, but we were expressly forbidden from saying the word, hate or "shut up"
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Same!! What was up with that?! I wonder if I'd have known other words for hate when I was a young kid still, if they'd be acceptable. Like loathe, despise, abhor, etc. Lol
SirFelsenAxt@reddit
" But Mom I hate lima beans..."
" Honey, we don't hate in this house"
Never made sense to me. Like if we said we hated something because we strongly disliked the flavor we would give into the dark side or something
wraith555666555@reddit
No. Thats fucking weird.
old-town-guy@reddit
No. Wut.
real415@reddit
Not at all. We were raised to say die, died, dead, death, without any fear.
Today I see that people want to say “passed,” rather than die. It seems somehow to be gentler on people. Yet it means the same thing, so I’m not sure that it is any easier.
I remember when my grandfather died. I was the only family member in town. The doctor told me everything that they did for him, but left out that he died. I asked how he was doing after the procedure. The doctor said “he has expired.”
Really? “Expired.” Like an old jug of milk. That damn euphemism. I really wanted him to say “I’m sorry, but he is dead.”
sermitthesog@reddit
I was playing guns with my little brother, and even though I shot him, he didn’t fall down and die. This started us bickering.
Finally I appealed to my mom, “Maaaaaa-ooom, I shot Zach and he won’t die!”
My mom, “Zach, die when your brother shoots you.”
GenX
AggressiveCommand739@reddit
No. But I said the word "rape" as a kid because I heard it on TV not knowing what it meant and my dad got very angry.
AlgaeWafers@reddit
No? Especially a normal word like “liar”.
GinX-@reddit
No, but a friend got restricted to her yard for a week for saying "butthole."
Waagtod@reddit
We weren't allowed to say puke, fart, ugly, fool, and a lot of other normal words people use. Had to call all adults Sir and Mamm, and be polite and never interrupt them. Churches suck, might be the reason I swear more than most people.
Purple-Mud5057@reddit
No but I wasn’t allowed to exaggerate
VxGB111@reddit
We had to have the convo with our kids not to say kill. Not because we care, but because the schools got all upset when the kids would pretend sword fight and "kill" each other. We had to tell them to use magic and "destroy" each other. It's the same god damn thing, but it kept the school from calling us about it. So stupid
Happy_Confection90@reddit
We were very discouraged from saying "I hate you" to anyone with the explanation that saying so meant you wished the person was dead, but not punished for saying it. Saying things like we hated homework or a food didn't raise eyebrows.
Nothing was ever said that discouraged saying kill or death.
OkOccasion5397@reddit
My mom was against the usual swear words. She also disliked "hate" and "stupid". We would usually say "passed away" instead of died.
Sloth_grl@reddit
We couldn’t say shut up or stupid
xXinkjetprinter69Xx@reddit
I had a similar experience to you but it wasn't enforced by my parents, it was enforced by my teachers at pre-school. We couldn't say kill or stupid.
El_Culero_Magnifico@reddit
Wow! What strange words to forbid.
mrhanky518@reddit
ITS THE CIRCLE! THE CIRCLE OF LIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIFE!
DiscontentDonut@reddit
Not even common in the Bible Belt, my guy. We were all allowed to say those words. Even when playing video games.
Our big no nos were the typical curse words and insults.
Constellation-88@reddit
No.
splorp_evilbastard@reddit
Nope. It was never outright said, but we weren't supposed to use swear words. That went away by the time I was a teen in high school.
macoafi@reddit
That list of bad words makes it sound like they all applied to your parents and were afraid you’d give an accurate description if they were available 😂
“Now listen, we don’t say alcoholic in this house. He just…enjoys himself.”
lwsquared@reddit
The only thing I can recall being forbidden to say (aside from true profanity) was "barf." I can remember my grandmother telling me when I was four that the proper word was "vomit." This said to a child in the back seat of a car letting the grown ups know I was going to be sick. 🤣
tcrhs@reddit
No.
kludge6730@reddit
No childhood censorship but for the major swear words. Even then those could be said provided you were willing to accept to consequences. But common verbs and adjectives like “kill” and “stupid” were perfectly fine at home or school.
Neither_Pudding7719@reddit
Sort of?
There were a few non-cuss words my parents discouraged but it wasn’t a punishable offense:
Dumb, stupid, idiot (specifically applying to others) Really any name-calling.
Our parents would talk about this but wasn’t the same as the George Carlin 7.
Kill when used in the phrase, “I’m gonna…”.
xxmadshark33xx@reddit
I was allowed to say all of those words as long as it was in an age appropriate context. My childhood best friend was pretty restricted in what he could say. He was autistic though, so it made sense to limit words he could say to avoid wildly inappropriate comments. However as he got older his parents let him say more “bad” words.
FlamingBagOfPoop@reddit
Grew up in the Bible Belt as well. I can kind of recall some people not liking the word “stupid” because it was kind of rude and a bit crass but it was different than if their kid was dropping one of the words you can’t say on tv according to George Carlin. And of course in the late 80’s and early 90’s, Bart Simpson was the pinnacle of vulgarity.
No-City4673@reddit
Parents pick up weird stuff all on their own too... my mom caused a massive family fight because the OG Jurassic Park, was against god by making dinosaurs real. She threw a fit over grandma letting the kids watch it.
ClumsyRaccoonPants@reddit
I’m attended Christian school until 8th grade and went to a Christian college on the Bible Belt as well as going to church 3 times a week and did youth group and choir and church camp and weekend retreats and I have never heard of this. What if you needed rubbing alcohol to clean a cut? What if your sibling lied about something you did? These are all really weird.
Sea-Bill78@reddit
No, haven’t heard this before but we pay attention to the work ‘hate’. It is too strong of a word and normalizes an emotion we don’t want to have in our lives.
AnotherCatLover88@reddit
No, my language was not policed nor would I have complied if I was requested to.
probridgedweller@reddit
No, but darn, heck, and hell were off the table.
Lazy_Nobody_4579@reddit
No. This is insanity. I wasn’t allowed to say stupid or dumb in relation to other people, but that was just about teaching kids to be nice, not about avoiding potentially uncomfortable subjects as if they were the plague.
j33@reddit
What, that seems weird to me. I wasn't allowed to swear in front of my parents or teachers or tell my siblings to shut-up or that they were stupid to their face (I got in trouble for that a few times), but those were pretty much the only restrictions on my language.
304libco@reddit
We weren’t allowed to say we hated people or to tell people to shut up.
IHSV1855@reddit
No. That is fucking insane.
The closest thing to that that I ever experienced was a friend’s mom who made us say “toot” instead of “fart”.
RTGlen@reddit
Were your parents afraid of being demonitized?
AZJHawk@reddit
LOL. Great comment.
ObjectiveElefant@reddit
lol I thought the same thing. Nearly 6am and I haven’t slept. I was like, hold on, am I in the future?
LoetherS@reddit
Right, lol how old is OP?
AZJHawk@reddit
My parents drew the line at any variations of fuck and shit. Other than that, there weren’t really any forbidden words. Even with fuck and shit, it was really more that they were seen as unbecoming, rather than forbidden. Like they wouldn’t wash my mouth out with soap or ground me for saying them, they were just frowned upon.
greeneggiwegs@reddit
No but we couldn’t say shut up or butt. Well, we COULD say butt, but then my dad would go on for five minutes about how that was a bad word when he was a kid.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
So what was his acceptable term? Derriere? Lmao "buttocks?" "Glutes?"
greeneggiwegs@reddit
Bottom.
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
Lol! That just sounds so hoity toity but it's a good word.
SnowblindAlbino@reddit
No, those are "rules" I would associate with really conservative Christian families that didn't allow their kids to watch TV or listen to "secular" music. Kooky people. I grew up around a few such families and their kids were, let's say, not well adjusted. Bizarre parents.
MadCityVelovangelist@reddit
I wasn't allowed to say I hated something.
SquatchK1ng@reddit
You probably weren't allowed to say "fart" either.
Ryan_TX_85@reddit
No. I always used actual words for things. And I grew up in the Bible Belt.
KJHagen@reddit
No. I’ve never heard of that.
Enough-Secretary-996@reddit
No. I couldn't say actual swear words for obvious reasons but the only time I was ever not allowed to say any regular words was when I was really annoying about it.
Defiant_Finger4011@reddit
Maybe your parents were trying to teach you better ways to phrase your sentences.
Well the word “kill” can be used in many different contexts. Also, more appropriate words could possibly be used.
“I’d kill for an ice-cream cone right now” - really, would you kill for some ice cream? Let’s work on better vocabulary.
“That deer was killed on the road” - let’s fix that sentence and explain the deer was hit by a vehicle and is now on the side of the road
I’m a little confused on how much a child would use the word “death” - dead I would understand. And with that taken into consideration in certain situations and conversations it might be more polite to use the term “passed away”
sharkycharming@reddit
I wasn't allowed to say butt, but that's the only non-swear I remember my mother forbidding.
Low-Landscape-4609@reddit
No. I grew up hunting and trapping. I "killed" many animals and they were "dead".
Coidzor@reddit
No.
I was forbidden from saying "I'm going to kill you," to people, mostly due to fighting with and amongst my siblings.
Fuk-mah-life@reddit
Not those, but I wasn't allowed to say "never"
Honorable memtions also include: hate, fart, and god.
biggcb@reddit
No. Never heard of such a thing
_handlemewithcare_@reddit
Hmm. I had multiple siblings. We couldn’t threaten to kill one another, call each other stupid, or say we hated each other. Butt was a bad word, so there ya go. My household wasn’t super strict, my parents wanted us to work out our feelings and problems without fighting. They also valued a strong vocabulary 😂.
rojoshow13@reddit
No, I was allowed to say anything I wanted. I would have gotten in trouble for saying "fuck you" to my mom or grandma, but it was because of my attitude, behavior, and disrespect. Not because of saying "fuck". And I'm pretty sure me and my cousins threatened to kill each other all the time. We got in trouble for fighting with each other, but the actual language used didn't matter. If my kids told someone, "Go fornicate with your mother you illegitimate child". I think that's just as bad as calling someone a mother fucking bastard because it's about how you're treating someone. That being said, if the person actually was an illegitimate child who fornicated with his mother, I would hope they would defend their decision and let me know.
hornbuckle56@reddit
No only “hate” or “fool” come to mind.
rawbface@reddit
None of those. Or conversations playing GoldenEye were pretty morbid.
SpunkySideKick@reddit
When I was a kid I remember my mother not wanting us to talk about death and stuff. She was the kind of person that felt if you talked about that sort of thing it would happen to you or someone close to you.
Utterlybored@reddit
Nope. The forbidden words were more about context. Saying “Shut up!” or calling someone “stupid” or anything cruel, demeaning or vulgar.
Adorable-Growth-6551@reddit
No not at all
oliviamrow@reddit
No. We got banned from saying we were bored or we hated this or that but that's just because my parents were tired of hearing it.
Great way to get a kid to learn some new vocabulary. I abhorred being limited then and I abhor it now. >:)
punkass_book_jockey8@reddit
I said and still say death and kill so often that the words have almost no real strength to them.
“Kill em with kindness.” “I’m going to kill time” “I’m bored to death” “I’m freezing to death” “I’m starving to death…” “you’re killin me smalls”
LionLucy@reddit
I was always told not to call someone a liar or say that what they were saying is a lie. I had to say they were “mistaken” instead. (Leading to “mummy, she took one of your chocolates and she said she didn’t but she’s mistaken!” and other amusingly inappropriate usages of the word) But the others you mention were fine, in fact I was taught not to beat about the bush and use euphemisms like “passed away” when there’s a plain English word that will do.
tcspears@reddit
I do remember being told not to say Stupid, but alcohol, kill, death, and other words that aren’t insulting no one had an issue with.
Cheedanish@reddit
Lie, liar and stupid were bad words to me, but seeing where you came from I think we just found our reason why.
For anyone interested, it’s more about manners and how we interact with others than actual vulgarity. To accuse someone of lying is a HEAVY accusation. So you said “making things up,” “telling stories,” “spinning yarns,” “fibbing” etc. instead. Stupid is also a heavy insult. You just didn’t insult someone’s intelligence. It wasn’t nice. Even if they WERE stupid, you didn’t say it out loud.
Forward_Tank8310@reddit
No
AlgaeSeveral858@reddit
No, but I wasn’t allowed to say that I hate anything or anyone
StinkieBritches@reddit
No and it would have been weird to me if I wasn’t allowed to say specific words unless they were curse words.
one-off-one@reddit
My religious neighbors did. I remember dying on their Mario 64, saying “awww I died” then getting lightly scolded that I couldn’t say that there
OkQuantity4011@reddit
Nope
dangleicious13@reddit
No
N47881@reddit
Grew up hunting so they were natural words to use
Responsible_Side8131@reddit
No, we didn’t belong to a weird religion
HorseFeathersFur@reddit
What generation are you op? We didn’t have those particular superstitions
Md693@reddit
No
Remarkable_Table_279@reddit
We weren’t allowed say shut up…but quickly were able to make be quiet. As adults mom said shut up and we gasped. Sisters kids thought stupid was the S word
thepineapplemen@reddit
I remember thinking “the S word” referred to stupid or shut up as a kid. Granted, I was in kindergarten or first grade; don’t think I was any older still thinking that
Steamsagoodham@reddit
No because my parents weren’t insane.
dobbydisneyfan@reddit
Considering that those words are found plenty of times in the Bible, nope.
angry_gavin@reddit
What did you say instead? A lion would unalive a gazelle?
Temporary-Land-8442@reddit
The closest I had to this was my very evangelical grandfather telling me not to say “helicopter” but “hecktacopter” in kindergarten, though I think it was a joke, or hope it was.
demonspawn9@reddit
These were forbidden at school for my kid c2010. But I don't recall anyone personally telling their kids not to, maybe exagerated gentle parenting on tv. Theres always that one kid though.
Vellich0r@reddit
Born in 2002, grew up in new england for reference. My parents didn't care, my older (by 9 years) sister didn't like me saying those words but there wasn't much she could do about it lol. I knew other kids whose parents didn't like them saying those words. It was mostly because of how it didn't sound polite or lady-like. For example, my sister insisted that I should say someone "passed away". I always thought it was dumb, and I still do as an adult. My sister is much more religious than my other family members, I don't know if that was the reason.
marklikeadawg@reddit
Lol, no.
ImportantSir2131@reddit
Born 1953. Those words weren't forbidden. My spouse, born 1956, wasn't allowed to say "drunk"
cameronpark89@reddit
no lol
Cheap_Coffee@reddit
No. That's weird.
Elixabef@reddit
I could say “kill” or “death” no problem, but my mom still doesn’t like it when I say “liar.”
Spotted_slamander7@reddit
No
Lilylake_55@reddit
No. I’m a Boomer and the only things you were forbidden to say were curse words. If you did you got your mouth washed out with soap.
malex84@reddit
No, not generally…. However after the hamster died my five year old became obsessed with death…
She kept asking if people were going to die, when people die, how people die…
It was frustration to keep redirecting her.
morganalefaye125@reddit
Those weren't banned, but I couldn't say, "Oh my God" because it was taking the lord's name in vain. "Crap" was also a curse word
OneNerdyLesbian@reddit
This wasn’t a thing for me as a kid. It’s interesting that you mention being in the Bible Belt as a reason too. I was raised Catholic, and Jesus’ death is talked about every mass, so I never felt like talking about death was taboo.
DragonSurferEGO@reddit
Wasn’t allowed to swear, kill or death was fine
wieldymouse@reddit
No, and I've never heard of any kids being banned from using these words.
georgeamberson1963@reddit
Yes, but my parents are Filipino, haha
Vachic09@reddit
No
dotdedo@reddit
No, your parents sound weird.
Quenzayne@reddit
No. We weren’t allowed to say “hate” at school, though.
Shitp0st_Supreme@reddit
What religious group was your circle?
DrBlankslate@reddit
Nope.
nowhereman136@reddit
No. the closest I ever had to something like that as a kid was a teacher in elementary school that banned the word "hate". She said hate was too strong of a word and never brings anything constructive. Kind of deep for a class of 8 year olds, but whatever. She might have also had an issue with kill or death, but I don't recall it ever coming up
Push_the_button_Max@reddit
Yep- my mom said to save “hate” for racism, etc., it’s a word that should be used sparingly.
Zealousideal_Top20@reddit
No my cousin was tho and was weird af
Johnnys-In-America@reddit
We could say those two words in my family, hell, even wrote a song about the Flying Foe who's gonna k*** you tonight, Lord save us all from a terrible death like this!! (The censoring is so the ban bots don't find me!) when I was 7 or 8, lol
What we couldn't say, though, was "hate," "shut up," "I swear to God," or"oh my God." Couldn't explain that to anyone, except that my parents were religious.
Educational-Ad608@reddit
No, but my great-grandmother, born in the 1890’s, told me that one thing I should absolutely NEVER say was “shut up”. They were “ugly words”.
Push_the_button_Max@reddit
Yes! I still NEVER use it.
TyraNotBanks5@reddit
No but I couldn’t say liar. I got popped in the mouth a couple of times for saying that growing up lol not sure why it was such an issue.
Alycion@reddit
Nope. I grew up in Baltimore. Kill and death were a thing in the 80’s. Other than profanity and hate speech, our speech wasn’t limited.
I mean it doesn’t matter if you replace it with arp, the meaning is still there. And discussions around those meanings help kids understand there are consequences if it is used as a threat.
HermioneMarch@reddit
Also grew up in Bible Belt but never heard this rule. I’m sure telling my sibling “ im gonna kill you” would not have been well received, but it would be intent rather than the word itself.
Face_with_a_View@reddit
What? lol. No.
We couldn’t call people names and my mom really hated “shut up” though
Sure_Tree_5042@reddit
My parents didn’t even teach us not to swear. We were told not to swear at school and such! So definitely no banned words.
IconoclastExplosive@reddit
No, not at all. My mom's catchphrase has been "eat shit and die motherfucker" since like 1969 and she largely expected us to follow suit
FWEngineer@reddit
Growing up in a rural area, women were still not expected to swear as much as the men up until maybe the early 80's.
IconoclastExplosive@reddit
I believe my stepdad told my mom to swear less when they were younger and she stabbed him. Don't do meth, kids.
therealgookachu@reddit
GenX, and my mother was a stickler for proper grammar. We could use any word so long as we used it properly, but ain’t and slang were smack-upside-the-head offense.
FWEngineer@reddit
Yeah, I forgot about ain't, and busted, and "me and did this thing"
Bluemonogi@reddit
None of those words were off limits for me.
My parents did not swear and did not like my siblings and I to say we hated things or people. To them the word hate should not have been used casually. That was pretty much it.
paulrudds@reddit
Not me no.
_Molj@reddit
Not really, but context was the important factor. Killing a mosquito or a cockroach, yeah, no worries. Talking about people led to an immediate sitdown and discussion. Solved it pretty early on.
rockettaco37@reddit
Umm... no?
Ok-Energy-9785@reddit
No
NixMaritimus@reddit
No, that's really over the top
hypo-osmotic@reddit
My parents were cautious about the context with which I used words like that, but the words weren’t banned altogether. I remember running to ask my mom how to spell the word “dead” and she got really concerned until I explained that we were playing with concrete chalk and were drawing “dead end” signs to simulate a roadway. That was fine, but if I had been writing something like “you’re dead” I would have been scolded
No_Importance_750@reddit
Not strictly forbidden or anything but I probably would have been told not to say that stuff, especially kill.
1nceACrawFish@reddit
We were allowed to say kill, but mom didn't want us to say fart. She told us to say we burped our butt... so we did because it was way funnier.
DrMindbendersMonocle@reddit
No, that is weird.
BullfrogShot@reddit
As a kid I was never allowed to play pretend about killing or being extremely violent. I also went to a Quaker school so we weren’t allowed to play games about fighting / war at recess either. We weren’t even allowed to wear camouflage to school.
dratthecookies@reddit
No but I once had a crying fit because my brother and some friends of ours said they were going to tell my parents I said "screw you."
DistinctPotential996@reddit
Stupid/dumb, lie/liar, and hate were the no-no words in my house
Ok_Salamander6797@reddit
WTF no
I hope you're in therapy now
Accomplished-Car4069@reddit (OP)
nah man im good, i think its funny now
Rum_Running_Sailor@reddit
What? No. I mean, my siblings and I were discouraged from threatening to kill each other, but that's something completely different.
ViolentCaterpillar@reddit
No, that's weird.
MeanderFlanders@reddit
Kill was fine but we weren’t allowed to call people stupid or liar or fart. We had to use words like ignorant and fib and toot. Texas 1980s-90s
Pitiful_Lion7082@reddit
No, I can't remember being told to not say those words. With my own children I don't want them playing at, effectively normalizing egregious violence. If it's appropriate, like if we're going to a funeral, having a memorial, or taking about harvesting animals for meat, that's fine.
dildozer10@reddit
I grew up in the Bible Belt and attended church weekly until I was a teenager. Not once was I ever told not to say kill, death, drunk, alcohol, or liar. Some phrases pertaining those words which expressed aggression were not allowed, but otherwise they weren’t outright banned.
EvernightStrangely@reddit
No, but I know of family that did. My cousins. I was only a few years older than them, but death as a concept was a banned topic last I was there, which was several years ago. Haven't been back or really talk to that side of the family so I don't know if it stayed that way.
qu33nof5pad35@reddit
No
ClickClick_Boom@reddit
I just couldn't say actual cuss words. Though I remember cussing a lot in elementary school with other kids. Our parents banning words just made them more fun to use behind their backs.
Quirky_Commission_56@reddit
No. My parents didn’t forbid me to talk about death at all because my maternal grandmother died when I was 7 years old and they wanted me to understand the concept of death and that it’s a natural process. Everything that’s alive will eventually die. 🤷🏻♀️
hellogoawaynow@reddit
No, only real bad words were bad words. Also I wasn’t allowed call anyone a butthead.
LHCThor@reddit
Wow!! That’s a lot of crazy restrictions. Your parents were (are) weird.
CustomerAbject8568@reddit
The only bad word in our house when I was young was “quiche” because I hated the food so much I would gag if anyone in the family said it. We called it “the Q word”… yes, I’m gay.
FreeStateOfPortland@reddit
Forbidden? No. But my mother didn’t like it when I said it and I don’t like it when my kids say it. They still do sometimes, but I encourage them not to
halfscaliahalfbreyer@reddit
We weren’t allowed to say “hate” because “we didn’t understand what we were actually saying” but I don’t think anything else like that
No-Assistance476@reddit
No
Mindless_Earth_2807@reddit
No. That's a tad bit odd.
Pleased_Bees@reddit
No. That kind of thinking didn't exist when I was a kid.
IPreferDiamonds@reddit
Those are normal words to me. I was allowed to say them.
IPreferDiamonds@reddit
The only words I couldn't say were curse words.
Smart_Engine_3331@reddit
I don't remember that being a thing in my childhood
Sooner70@reddit
LOL.
I grew up on a military base in the post-Vietnam years. Backyard BBQs generally devolved into combat vets trading stories of literal war crimes and the like. As a kid, I was too young to understand the nuances. Were they bragging about killing POWs or bearing their souls... I have no idea. But 6 year old me heard all about it.
Yeah, there were no prohibitions on the word kill, or death, or anything of the sort.
lfxlPassionz@reddit
Definitely not normal
Sea_Background_8023@reddit
No
tuberlord@reddit
No. I was actually actively discouraged from using euphemisms at all.
WarProper3733@reddit
No, but the push to censor spoken and written communication is coming from somewhere so I can't believe you're alone.
HoldOnHelden@reddit
No, but I knew kids who were.
Absolutely demented rule.
Accomplished_Cell768@reddit
No. Pretty much the only thing I was barred from saying was “oh my god” or curse words. I babysat kids that had a list of off limits words that included “stupid” when used as an insult, so they just said “dum dum” instead. I never understood what the parents thought that would accomplish.
A-Moron-Explains@reddit
No lol I grew up in the Bible Belt too.
Koumadin@reddit
nope
Traditional-Joke-179@reddit
at least you're rich now that your parents invented tiktok
twxf@reddit
lol no