How much should swear words be worth?

A quarter per word, shit and damn included and it should go to your child’s college fund.

We did the same but put the money towards a family weekend adventure of the kids choice. That ultimately didn’t work as it is easy to toss coin in a jar….I ultimately switched over to 10 pushups for each bad word…worked like a charm as try doing 220 pushups after a holy hell rant!

I’d include every word you wouldn’t want your child to say in front of your grandmother (assuming your grandmother would disapprove.) One dollar per word.

When my son was two, he began saying “shit” in an appropriate manner, such as dropping food from his high chair. We didn’t swear a lot usually, but that put us on guard.

The punishment is to have to put money in the jar, not gifting it to some cause you´d dislike.
Gift the money to a good cause, one that you both support (or let the child(ren) benfit from it).

A fucking shit load, swearing is bastard disgusting. Ignorant foul mouthed tw@s!!
Err…..how much do I owe?

I never really got the concept of a swear jar in the first place. I guess it makes sense if you want to prepare your kid for a life full of debt (credit cards, mortgage, student loans, etcetera) but I think there are more effective ways to go about it, like @Cruiser‘s method.

Which words should be included depends on how strongly you believe in free speech. I think a safe starting place would be George Carlin’s “Seven Words” list; shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, and tits as the FCC seems to hate those.

As for donating the money to Palin, that is just fucking nuts; she isn’t even a candidate!

A quarter a word.

The list should include any words you don’t want to hear coming out of your little one’s mouth.

What? Why would you give it away? Why not use it for a vacation or a lovely dinner out for the two of you. It’ll be hard to stay focused on the romance part of your relationship once the baby comes.

A dollar, and something you hate is a greaty incentive! I think The “S” word, The “F” word and both “B” words if they are used as an insult should be included. Damn and piss should be a quarter.

Before reading the details, I thought this was a question about Scrabble!

Just go with the words you don’t want to hear your kid saying. If ‘damn’ (or any other word) doesn’t offend either of you, you don’t have to fine yourselves for it.
@chyna‘s idea about the money going toward your child’s college fund is good. A charity sounds like a good idea, too. Probably shouldn’t put it toward anything too positive for yourselves (like a vacation) if you’re trying to prevent your family from swearing though; might be more of an incentive to start swearing more.

I agree with avoiding any words you wouldn’t want your kids repeating. A Sarah Palin fund? Now that is crazy talk indeed. I’d opt for something fun such as a family weekend away.

I always preferred the brush-your-teeth-with-non-toxic-soap method, myself.

I’m not sure. Anyway when we raised our own we explained how and when it’s allowed to swear. We preferred to teach them ourselves and explained most of them. It’s rather annoying to hear one day words used and without a perfect timing.

It’s not good to allow them to swear but sometimes other people don’t understand any other language so it’s better to be prepared for any situation.

Put a high price on swears or any atypical flame. Oh and when the jar is full don’t use the money for yourselves or donate them. Just give them to someone who won’t appreciate them, this way you’ll feel a lot worse so you won’t continue to swear. If you donate the money to charity it’s good but it won’t stop you swearing.

I never had a problem with the swearing, when I swear I have to make a conscience effort to do so otherwise I have other words for everything. You just come up with different words instead of swearing is all and they are words that sound nothing like the swear word that way a child doesn’t pick up any wrong words.

Today my 5 year old said ‘stupid’ for the first time. I was having trouble putting his railroad together and he said ‘this railroad is stupid, stupid railroad, makes your head hurt’ (i’m going through a sinus infection right now). I said ‘you’re right, it is stupid’ and moved on. The concept of a swear jar eludes me.

A quarter a word, at home. If said in front of the child, a dollar. $5 if the child repeats it.
The money should be put in a college fund.
My kids would have been able to go to Berkeley.

@filmfann If I had kids, they’d own Berkeley!

Where did curse words come from? Habits.. Words are words but habits are taught from childhood and are brought on from stress.. Control your stress, identify the reason why you curse then break the habit. Do this before your kids get old enough to mimic and you can save all those quarters (to pay your taxes). At least that’s the way we did it and now my kids are adults and they still don’t curse.

My parents did this when I was a kid and the money went to me. It really encouraged me to manipulate them into swearing and to rat them out when they slipped up. I’m not sure it was much damned good for preventing me from swearing.