Can You Effing Cool It??

by Cathy

The other day, I took the bus home from work.
I normally don't mind this; it gives me a chance to sit back, relax and take a quiet break in my day before I get home and the after school madness ensues. However, this time, that madness was ensuing on the bus.

I just so happened to leave work when the high school up the street was letting out for the day. Lucky for me, I was trapped on snail-paced public transportation, teeming with loud, boisterous, energetic, hormonally overloaded teenagers. The smell of Doritos and sweaty P.E. uniforms filled the once breathable air. Conversations and greetings were being had and exchanged across the length of the bus and the tingy, annoying sounds of every music genre out there was blaring through iPods and iTunes-heavy phones cranked to the hilt.

As if that weren't bad enough, I was sitting across the aisle from two teenage boys, sitting next to each other having, what at first seemed like a normal conversation at a normal decibel. As it went on, I could overhear bits and pieces, mostly expletives. These expletives were starting to pepper the conversation considerably more, until it felt like the F word was being showered down upon me. "Fuckin'" began every sentence, filled every pause within sentences and ended each sentence. 'Why can't they just have a regular conversation?' I thought. 'Was it out of habit or do they think they sound cooler to their friends?'

What made this whole thing even worse, was that just a few seats away, sat a mom and her young kids - one boy around age four and one girl around age six. They clearly could hear the conversation these effin' boys were having. That's what troubled me. It didn't seem like the mother was phased, however, my guess is that she didn't understand English very well, and probably, neither did her children. But 'fuck' is a pretty universal term - no translation needed in any language.

Then I thought, 'What if I had my kids with me?'

If that were the case, I can tell you this: They would have been asked to effing stop.  I find that many times, kids that age aren't aware that they are in an environment other than their own, and for the most part, they respect it when it's brought to their attention that there are small children around. I know this firsthand because I've asked people to refrain from cursing when my kids are around and mostly, they get it.

Of course I've gotten the ignorant road rager, who is so blinded by rage that he/she sees nothing except the giant middle finger they are holding triumphantly out their window for everyone (my kids included) to see, or focuses on nothing but the most appropriate curse word to call me at that particular time, not seeing that my kids are in the back seat and my window is open. Yeah, real nice. Real mature. It takes a big man/woman to put me in my place with such vulgar words and animated expressions in front of my kids.

Next time, people need to effing cool it, look around and think before they effing lose it. There are kids present.