|
I let my preteen read whatever the hell he wants, unbastardised, short of the books that he is legally banned from buying in a shop. And I'm very comfortable with that decision. From a practical point of view, most books with large amounts of strong swear words have subject matter that is simply not of interest to him anyway.
He's certainly not going to learn anything new - we've long since discussed swearing, he knows all the swear words and their literal meanings, and he typically uses them appropriately and rarely. And there isn't anything in books that he won't hear around the traps at school! If we'd approached the issue with a "Taboo! Taboo!" angle, I suspect he'd be more interested in rebelling for rebellion's sake.
I read anything and everything at his age, far broader than he does, and I really think it did not do me any harm. I love that my parents trusted me to choose my own reading and let me pull from their shelves and from anywhere in the library, even where other adults may have thought I was reading "inappropriate" things.
|