I don't think cussing is wrong, honestly. I don't swear in front of the kids but I swear like a sailor with my wife and especially my friends. That's not the reasoning behind what I'm doing here. It's because *others* can judge for it.

For the record - my kids do know the bad words, especially the 11yo. And I totally get what you're saying – by allowing it freely in the house make it lose the appeal in general. That's actually what we do with alcohol and other things (no, they don't drink obviously, but we don't shield them from the fact that we'll go through a bottle of wine or a few beers on occasion).

I think you and I both have the same end goal in mind – to raise the kids to be respectful and smart. Mine know not to drop the F-word with their teachers or other parents or anything like that, and so do yours. That's the main objective here – there are just different ways to get there, that's all.