You could say 'urine' and 'feces' or 'bowel movement.'

Or you could teach your kids to count, starting with #1 and #2.

I could, but how would that be better?

I doubt it, it's a mainstream phenomenon that has been going on for years. Hip adults talk like children and replace "bad" words with [initial]-word all over the place. It's some sort of voluntary linguistic regression.

It's equally plausible that, as you age, you have more contact with people who have contact with children, and therefore use childrens' words. It's not regression, it's effective communication

Just curious, what's wrong with this?

What's wrong with regression? Adults that speak like children might find it easier to also think like children, accept institutional father figures more easily, do what they're told without talking back, etc.

Language is what we use to think so it is very important to what and how we think.

I used to cuss like a sailor until I started gaming with a group of Mormons. Very nice guys and very intelligent. Instead of saying 'fuck' they say 'frick', instead of 'shit' they so 'shoot', instead of 'damn' they say 'dang'. Next thing I knew I started noticing other people swearing, and just how juvenile it sounded. One could argue that truly speaking like a child is to have no restraint over what comes out of your mouth, not the other way around.

It's not a very intelligent thing to change the form of the curse words but not their content. It's the kind of solution that a child's intellect might come up with - I can't call my sister "fat"? It's OK, I'll just call her "taf" instead.

I think a better comparison would be instead of calling your sister fat, you tell her you are upset with her. The point I was making was practicing restraint. If you go around calling people 'fat' to insult them, you are obviously very child like and I don't think the analogy helps your point.

Maybe you should read again what you wrote:

> Instead of saying 'fuck' they say 'frick', instead of 'shit' they so 'shoot', instead of 'damn' they say 'dang'.

And focus on the logic, not the implied naughtiness of my fictional example that's got your panties in a bunch.

You want to practice restraint? Then don't say anything instead of swearing. It's as simple as that.

Lol, 'my panties in a bunch'. While it feels good to express oneself, it shows maturity to not shout out 'SHIT!', if even to substitute it with 'SHOOT!', and therein lies the logic. It demonstrates a certain level of restraint, while not absolute restraint, but at least a base level of it. You may not agree. You might also be a self-righteous prick, but since you advocate lack of restraint, there you have it.

Edit: and to clarify,

"It's not a very intelligent thing to change the form of the curse words but not their content." - I never said it was intelligent, I said it made me realize how juvenile people sound when they curse non stop.

"And focus on the logic, not the implied naughtiness of my fictional example" - You are missing the point here, which I stated plainly in my first post: One could argue that speaking like a child is to have no restraint over what comes out of your mouth, not the other way around.

"You want to practice restraint? Then don't say anything instead of swearing. It's as simple as that." - Oversimplifying, a sign of immaturity, i'm concerned about you...

Whew, you should rest after taking a leap like that!

Don't you mean "go beddy-bye"?

Neoteny is posited as one of the key factors in differentiating humans in evolution[0]....

[0]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoteny#Human_evolution

An extraordinary claim in search of an extraordinary proof.