I don't mind it so much but the girls think it is a cuss word but they are also slowly realizing that many of their classmates use it and use it frequently. I told them even if they heard it that doesn't mean it is OK for them to use it.

Now we are dealing with my middle daughter saying I am going to kick you in the donkey and while it was funny the first time it has lost its luster and drives me crazy.

My mom had it squarely in the bad word category. But if I had fainted, I might have whipped out the mother of all words, so bravo to Marie for keeping it PG!

My nephews, ages 7 and 10, say it all the time, even around my girls, who are 5 and 3. It really bugs me because I don't want my kids saying it at school or church. However, I confess, it's my word of choice. I'd rather say it than something worse. But, I think it's a bad habit and one I should clean up before my kids repeat what I've said and not just what they hear their cousins say!

Well, crap, if Laura Petrie can say it (she who wouldn't even (gasp) share a bed with her hubby), then it must be OK!

My vocabulary isn't terribly refined if I'm awakened from fainting, just for the record.

'Bad word' category for me. My kids aren't allowed to say it but of couse, I do.

My point is that I thought it curious that it was OK to quote her on TV, not that she said, "crap".

huh. I think my mom didn't mind us using crap as we got older, but we were never allowed to say jesus christ.
Go figure. We weren't even Christian.

I hear it a lot, even in public, but I don't use it and I don't want the kids to use it. That being said, I'm sure they do, but not within range of my ears. I prefer to say things like "god bless america" and "good golly miss molly", both with great emphasis. Old fashioned, I know, but effective if used in the right context.

And, I forgot to add that my 2 variations on curse words can be used almost anywhere, and in any situation, and hardly offend anyone.

Isn't Dancing with the Stars on live? If so, they wouldn't have time to edit out the word crap. Isn't that why we see butt cracks from time to time on the show? That bothers me more than the word crap.

I don't mind "crap". What I do mind is "AssBleep" and "GodBleep" Shouldn't they be bleeping "ass" instead of "hole" and just flat out bleeping the whole GD?

BTW, I say "muffler".

With boys in their late teens, we are way beyond crap. It does bug me that it is used on TV though, as well as a myriad of other words I don't think are suitable, bleeped or not. That said, when one of the kids' elementary school teachers complained to us that our child used the word "butt" in his writing, I said, "You mean as in 'get your butt off the sofa and do your homework?' Don't know where he would have gotten that!".

Hi.

I must admit that "crap" is my biggest vocabulary problem, when I'm upset or surprised. I even make it holy! LOL

I joke about it, in blog, but I really wouldn't say it in public, either.

I think they quoted her because they did feel it was derogatory.

~Heidi

If it's okay for Squeaky-Clean Marie Osmond to say it, it's okay for EVERYONE to say it.

I don't like my kids saying "crap" ... but I'm sure they'll learn much worse straight from the mouths of my husband and me. It is in our bad word box though.

Ya know what one drives me nuts???? SUCKS! When I was growing up if I was caught saying SUCK, like, "That Sucks!" I would have had my mouth washed out with soap. Today ... I hear it from kids EVERYWHERE! Except my house ... or else they'd be getting a little taste of Dawn, Dove or whatever is closest!

"Crap" was an okay word when I grew up (I'm only 10 years younger) but then again I did learn my best cuss words from my mom.

Crap? Really? They say "crap" and "ass" and words of that caliber on The Simpsons which, lest people forget, is a cartoon. On Prime Time. Several times a day. Yeah, I think the world, sad as it may be, has far surpassed "crap". I think that there are much bigger fish to fry. "Crap" is, in my (probably warped) opinion, no big deal. It's like "butt" or "hell". Painless.

Did you watch "Everybody loves Raymond"? Frank used to say "Holy Crap" all the time, so apparently quoting Marie, wasn't a big deal. Is she still a Mormon? Should we have expected her to say "oh my heck?"

I'm still real confused why some words are 'bad' and others aren't. Why is shit worse than crap? Why is the word sex okay but the other one not? Same act.

Maybe it's my own nod-to-the-spectrum inability to grasp the social reaction to 'bad' words as valid or why replacing them with 'other' words instead is more acceptable.

I get if you called someone 'crap' it's offensive. It stinks and is an attempt to degrade your value. If you call someone 'dog crap' I get that is worse than regular 'crap.' Dogs aren't as highly regarded as humans.

To say 'crap' to a situation.. meh. I don't see that as bad at all. No different to me than saying "Holy Banana Hammock."

My mom always said any word can be bad if you make it bad.

I teach my kids there is a time and place. I don't teach them it's 'bad.'

As for Marie - my opinion goes back to - meh.

Interesting read though, the post and the comments.

It's always been a bad word to me. Definitely in the "cuss word" department.
My mom wouldn't even let me say "freak" or "freakin'" growing up.
I'd say it wasn't a cuss word and she'd shoot back with, "But I know what you want to say and are just using that word in it's place, and I don't like it!"
I know I won't allow my kids to use those words either.

Yeah, TVs definitely gotten more risque--I do watch tons of free-wheelin' cable (where anything goes) but am surprised when I hear some stuff on network TV...but, crap? Like Angela said above, it's been done. Also, I won't let my 10 yr. old say it (we decided just today he could say crud) but there's no stopping that teenage boy. I would be thrilled if he only said crap! And... PS--I usually spell it with a 'k'!

Funny you should post this - I just wrote about it the other day...
http://judysbragblog.blogspot.com/2007/10/load-of-crap.html

Vulgarity is always ugly. Poor Marie. She'll be catching excrement for this for months.

I used to say it, a lot. But when I heard my 3 year old say it in front of a group of people from church, I decided it really should be a word on our no list.

It's in the "don't use" catagory for me. I'm guilty of saying "holy cow," and now that Tony is using it, I think I better stop. I don't like it coming out of his mouth.

I thought that she looked mortified when they came back to her for the scoring and I'm not sure if that was more because she fainted or because they rudely quoted her first words. I thought it was rude.

I've thought the same thing. "Crap" was as bad as the "S-word" when I was a kid (36 now) but now it seems to have entered the mainstream vernacular.

Wow. I never, ever, heard of "crap" being a swear word! It was always the safe alternative to the "S" word when we were kids. In the same category as "heck", "dang" and "fudge".

They say ass and bitch on prime time TV now, too. :-\ Where as I curse and everything? IMO between 8-9 pm they shouldn't allow ass and bitch. that's just a bit much.

Look at Busymom being controversial ;)

Meeta made me laugh.

D-boy heard me say "OH crap" the other night and keeps repeating it. We keep telling him it is a bad word, and so he seems to be grasping that there are bad words we shouldn't say, sometimes mommy and daddy mess up and then we talk about why we shouldn't say bad words. The real confusion that I have is the word "butt." Growing up we were not supposed to even say "Butt". Some kids in his class just call their butt "my butt." I tell him its not a good word... I don't know who is more confused.

I am sad to say that I use this word. I guess I never really thought of how bad it sounded. I mean I dont go out yelling it in public, but my husband and I dont cuss. We live in a cuss free home. So crap is used. When I was growing up I wasnt allowed to say butt,crap, freaking, or dang. My kids do say crap but , like I said I didnt pay alot of attention to how it became part of our vocabulary.

Crap was not considered a cuss word where I was a kid and I'm 40. Not that it would be OK to say it anywhere at the drop of a hat. But if you smashed your finger or fainted on TV, it would have been perfectly fine.

OK, I dedcided to see what makes the word, well, crap. First, the definitions call it vulgar, so that kind of puts it in the "shouldn't say it on TV" category. It is an old word coming from the Middle English, crappe, or chaff. (ref: Dictionary.com)
Look, with what is said in TV dialogs today, crap is pretty pedestrian. So, we have lowered standards pretty far to make crap socially acceptable on TV. Watch any sports interview and crap would not the the bleeped word. My question is why is it ok to put in a quote in the paper eff___, like we all did not know what that was. Why not just put in [expletive deleted], blah, blah, crap, blah.

Nope, crap's not a big deal in my book. Neither is sucks or butt. It's generational.

This article and the comments are fascinating to me. I grew up hearing my dad say crap all the time, but I wasn't allowed to say it. I thought it was a true-blue swear word. Once I hit my teens, it was the only barnyard word I was allowed to say without getting into more trouble than a look from my mom, and now that I'm an adult (one who NEVER swears), I fling that word around like nothing. I love to say crap. I love to say holy crap. I love Frank on Everybody Loves Raymond because he says crap. I didn't know anyone viewed it as a swear word; figured my mom was being extra strict because we couldn't say a lot of stuff that other kids could. I also met Marie Osmond, but she didn't say crap - even though she seemed to be having a crappy day at the time.

I am 31 and my parents would not tolerate any of that when my sister and I were growing up. I still think stupid is a no-no.

I use to have a really bad potty mouth but over the last 3 years it has gotten much better. When it was really bad my Mama would ask me to please leave my box of colorful phrases at the door or be on my merry way.

It think that it is sad that people have changed their thinking about what constitutes a bad word. When I have kids, all of these words will not be alowed. I would rather have them explain what they are feeling than hearing, "That sucks!" come out of their mouth. That answer is way too easy.

Myla

I'm 26. "Crap" was always a cuss word growing up. My kids don't use it, don't know it. I find it, along with "suck", vulgar. "Butt' is borderline, I prefer "bum", "tush", etc... Then again, I was born and raised in the South.

I am just a little younger than you (38) but I remember growing up with "crap" deemed basically a low-level cuss word as well. In fact I distinctly remember in 5th grade when an 8th grader said "crap" and it was about as bad, to me, as saying "sh*t."

Then again, I was kind of a sheltered kid, but still!

Maybe it's a southern thing. We weren't allowed to say crap, certainly. But I do now. I don't let Bella say it, so I'm a hypocrite. I'm not a cusser by nature, though...probably because I grew up in a cuss-free home. My mom still cringes when my sister or I say "butt" and "fart." When I was younger, I felt like it was going to permanently scar me to have to use tamer terms than "butt." And I was SO embarrassed every time my mom would say "bottom." Oh, the agony.

I'm 37 and am just now surprised to find out that lots of people find "crap" offensive! My, I must have made some people uncomfortable over the years! Now I could never, never use the f-word growing up and I do not allow my son to use that, but crap was and is allowed. I cringe when he says "sucks" but it is so prevalent in our world today that I kind of roll with it and remind myself to pick my battles.

I say worse things than "crap", especially when I am behind the wheel and feeling frustrated. Ashamed to say my kids have heard alot of that stuff. And yet they don't repeat it themselves and they are the ones who remind me that those are "naughty
words" and I shouldn't use them. )))

The biggest talking-to I ever got as a kid over something I said was for saying "crap." Hahahah I was 10 years old and didn't know what it meant. But I used it liberally.

I guess my daughter [8yo] has said crap, but I've never noticed. It's just never hit my personal radar. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't use it in a business meeting or at church. You know? There's this invisible filter that magically turns on in situations like that.

I am pretty good about not cussing around my kids....ever since my daughter was 2. One day, she had just been wearing me out...one thing after another, and she wouldn't let me change her diaper. I said, "Dammit, I have to put a clean diaper on you."

Her response: "Oh shit."

hahahahahahah I tried so hard not to laugh out loud. It really was funny. I'm laughing even now, remembering it.

But it did clean up my act.

I don't swear, I never have, I don't let Princess either, but "crap" doesnt' bother me.

I really have nothing to contribute, except all this talk reminds me of an Orbit Gum commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEJJUGJZxpU

at the risk of sounding hypocritical and like an old fart, - I hate the way foul language has become acceptable in society, on TV, and with youth. The Teen called someone a "real prick" and my jaw hit the floor! She got a quick lesson in what is totally unacceptable. She thought it was supposed to be a "no big deal word."

swing, pendulum, swing

I don't let my young kids say it, but if thats the worst my teens say, I have to be happy! I have said it a LOT lately, I don't know what is up with that, probably stress.
Anyway, I guess it doesn't bother me at all that they quoted her saying it. I think that is exactly what I would say if I fainted on tv, too. I don't "swear" as long as you don't concider crap a swear word and you don't listen when I'm PMS'ing and my teens are having stupidity attacks.

Nope, crap isn't verboten around here. Never was.

We use multiple forms of crap: Crapola, craptastic... craptacular.

If I took a very unflattering flop on national TV, you'd be lucky if I said "crap" upon awakening. Then again, the dance and the "after dance" were equally embarrassing.

Was'nt it a Thomas Crapper who invented the water closet, since shortened to crapper then the contents became the "crap"

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Words are just words. I wonder why "bad words" became so verboten in the first place. Some people need to calm down, including the FCC; but if they are going to allow one, they should allow the other.

the word crap is the less bad word of shit. therefore who cares if celebrities day it, we should be glad that she didnt say shit. i tell my kids its okay to say crap. they say their teachers say crap frequently, so who relly cares

I was just wondering what makes anything a "cuss" or "bad" word. "Crap," "Poop," "Shit," "Feces," all mean the same thing but some are socially acceptable and some are not. Who made the rules as to which are okay and which are not. The only reason there are bad words in the first place is because we're programmed to believe or "know" that some words are "worse" than other even when numerous words share the same meaning. I figure the only reasons people accept words as "bad" in the first place is for expression, and if there are bad actions, and bad people, then there must be "bad" words.

When it comes to kids. I don't believe they should be taught it's okay to speak these "bad" words, but I think everyone should realize that it's actually kind of a mystery as to why some words are so bad anyways. Most of them had a meaning that wasn't bad to begin with and it got twisted into something else. Yesterday, crap was a bad word. Today gay is a bad word when it wasn't yesterday, and crap is socially acceptable, and who knows, maybe tomorrow cat or dog or rain will be a bad word. Just depends on clever ways people can twist things. I'm just saying, the only reason any word is bad is because of the way people create it to be and teach it to other people. Otherwise, it's just a word and probably had another meaning before it was considered "bad."