Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
Do you read in advance every book that your children get their hands on to make sure that it's appropriate for them?
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No, Harry, I did not (my youngest is now 27 so I'm speaking in past tense in this regard). What I did do, however, was teach my children that what was appropriate conversation among friends was not necessarily appropriate elsewhere.
My children at ages 7 and 8 would come home from school having learned the latest 4-letter word on the playground. It would have been futile to complain to the school because the school cannot monitor every moment of every child's being. Instead, I took it upon myself to teach my children the rules of civilization.
I view the language used in books the same way. When my children would point to a passage in a book as support for their use of certain words, I would ask them to come up with an alternative way to get across the same message. I also would point out to them that there is a lot of difference between reading to oneself words that one finds acceptable and orally using those words with people who are offended by them.
My children learned pretty well.
