Dismantling the F@#$%&g F-Bomb

The "F-word" is a controversial topic, at least to American English speakers. Now, just let me state for the record that I'm used to it--in fact, two of my grad-school friends once had a cussing contest. I'm still not sure who won--it was quite impressive. My issue is when others drop the F-bomb around my kiddo loudly enough that she might start repeating it.

My question is: do we as moms have the right to ask--or demand--that someone watch their language when within earshot of our children? I'm talking about in public; in the privacy of your own home, you can go ahead and have a potty mouth. If you can't clean it up when there are kids around, I won't be bringing my kiddo to your house in the first place.

This question has come up because the other day, hubby and kiddo and I were in the car when hubby had a mishap with his coffee cup and we had to make an emergency stop at Panera. Now, for the record, the smell of coffee tends to make me ill, and there was a whole puddle of it in the center console of the car. Oh, yeah, and my keys were in there. My car keys that have the remote entry fob. Sitting in a puddle of liquid. So when we all clambered out of the car to clean up the mess, I was already in a foul mood. A couple of teenagers strode by and one of them used that word. If it had been a cartoon, steam would have come out of my ears. I said, "Hey, you need to watch your language", to which they...laughed. And I replied "Just shut up already".  OK, not the best way to handle it, but I didn't hear anything else from them as they went on their way.

I know that the kiddo will eventually be exposed to that word and will most likely use it herself. Shen she's 16, OK...I won't like it, but I will accept it as long as she doesn't use it when I can hear her. When she's 6, no way. Not acceptable. Yes, I know she will hear it at school and I will have to deal with it, but really, I just don't want to have to dismantle that bomb in my house. Lazy? Yup. So watch your language so that I have less work to do.