'Our son sweared in front of my parents'

Dear Diana, I take pride in my being a housemaker but something happened recently that shocked me. We were having our lunch together and both mine as well as my husband's parents were seated at the table.

In the middle of the conversation, we heard our son scream an expletive. I don't know how he picked up such a crass word. I called his school to inform them about what happened but they are just clueless as I am. He's a fine kid with a good heart but this unusual swearing validates me as a bad parent, doesn't it?
- Norah

Illustration/ Amit Bandre

Dear Norah,
It is not that you have been a bad parent. Children are exposed to several stuff from where they can pick it up or from his peers. Your child cursed because he was frustrated or angry about being asked to do something that was hard for him. In these instances, when things calm down, kids need to be taught that cursing doesn't solve their problems - it adds to it. Because not only do they have their original problem, now they've got an extra consequence on top of that - his behaviour needs to be dealt with. You have to explain to him that what he is doing is wrong and should be stopped.