Swearing Around Mom

When my siblings and I got angry with each other as kids we called each other the worst unimaginable names, and the act of holding back was just not in us when it came to name-calling.

When the words spurted out of our mouths, these are the names that we used as a form of letting frustration out: Pig! Dog! “You’re a pig!” “So? You’re a dog!”

That was it, that was the best name-calling we had. If our mother heard us, oh, she’d get angry with us, scold us, and punish us. Most of the time if she heard us, especially if she was cooking, she’d storm out of the kitchen with her grease-stained worn-out apron, in her irate manner towering over us, with one hand on her hip and the other hand with her index finger protruding up in the air and say, “Go to your room!”

And because all six kids shared one room, we all had to go to that one room, then privately, the name-calling would continue, “You’re a dog!” So, “You’re a pig!”

Our parents didn’t resort to name-calling but they did swear. There were two cuss words that often came out of their mouths: hell and damn.

“Go to hell!” they’d maliciously say to each other during their heated arguments while stomping in different directions. If our father sneezed too many times in a row, he’d get extremely aggravated and yell out, “Damn it!” while blowing his bugle horn [his nose].

But one word that was absolutely forbidden in our home growing up was the word “stupid.” I think that word was said once in our home and it was never said again because our mother absolutely did not like it.

Another word that was never used in our home growing up was the four-letter “F” word and I never knew of the word.  As a matter of fact, as I got much older, I had never heard the word and it wasn’t until I met my ex-husband Robert that I started hearing it, and that was his favorite word.

“F” this, “F” that. “F” you, b---”, he’d say to me in our heated arguments. My children will always say the “F” word but I always ask them not to say it, especially in my presence.

Unfortunately, I have on occasion said it. I know, I’m guilty and I shouldn’t say it, but it’s only out of frustration that I’ll say it. For instance, if I bang my baby toe on something, it just comes flying out of my mouth.

Once I did say the “F” word to Robert during our divorce. “You mother---.” Trust me, he deserved it.

Name-calling and swearing seem so much more vulgar these days. The “B” word and the four-letter “F” word were words that were never used in our home growing up and our parents did not call each vulgar names although they did swear on many occasions.

Times have changed since my siblings and I were growing up. Name-calling and swearing was so much innocent back then.

Yolanda Reyna is a member of the writing class offered through the Cerritos College Adult Education Program.  It is held off-campus at the Norwalk Senior Center.