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Ah, what goes around comes around, eh? I remember my father choking on his dinner when he heard me, in the Sixties, use the expression "I"m screwed" for "I'm in trouble." Now, like you, Rick, I find that I'm not bothered by "fuck," "goddam" and the like, but will not allow "bitch" (or any other sexist or racist word) to be within my earshot. I find the kids around here to be quite inventive. They make up their own terms (or at least they think they're original). "Dirt" (as in "he's a dirt") is one. So is "Bite me." So, while my son has yet to tell me to "fuck off," he has countered with "Bite me" on occasion. Your daughters must have coined a few phrases themselves - or could. Then again, I have a colleague (good at policing racist/sexist language in his teaching) who, after many drinks, calls all his feminist friends "c__ts" (See, I can't even write it - I find it so offensive). This issue is not exclusive to teenagers. Lorri ********************************************************************** Experience isn't something you go and get--it's a gift, and the only requisite for receiving it is that you be open to it...Ursula Le Guin ********************************************************************** Lorri Neilsen Mount Saint Vincent University 166 Bedford Highway Halifax, Nova Scotia CANADA B3M 2J6 Ph (902) 457-6156 (voicemail)