January 31, 2026
What words, instead of curse words, do you say in front of children?
This Question of the Day sounds light on the surface, but it carries a lot of personality underneath.
The answers usually spill out quickly. Almost automatically. People do not have to think very hard about this one, because these phrases live close to the reflexes. They come out when something drops, breaks, spills, or goes very wrong very fast.
Jiminy crickets. Jiminy Christmas. Son of a motherless goat. Jimmy cracked corn. Good grief. For the love of everything holy.
Some of them are inherited. You can hear grandparents echoing through the room when they show up. Others are improvised in panic, stitched together in real time as your brain races to find anything acceptable before the original word escapes.
What I like about this Question of the Day is that it reveals restraint without pretending we are calm. Nobody swaps out a curse word because they feel peaceful. They do it because the moment is charged and someone small is watching.
That choice matters.
Kids are incredible observers. They know when something almost happened linguistically. They hear the pause. They notice the weird phrasing. They understand that you are holding something back, even if they cannot name it yet.
This question is not really about language. It is about that split second of care. That moment where you decide what kind of example you want to be, even when surprised or frustrated.
If you want to read how this question connects to today’s Thought of the Day and a longer reflection on intention and imperfect aim, you can read the full post here: Thought of the Day and Question of the Day: Mind Your Aim.
You can also explore hundreds of past prompts in the Question of the Day archive or join the daily email here and get one Question of the Day delivered each morning, ready or not.
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