When it comes to behavior around your kids, what bothers you the most?

I would second the smoking one for sure. Since my son has been born I am constantly saying please dont smoke around him. Do you think they stop. No. They just wip out a ciggarette and light it up. It makes me mad. FIghting would be another one for me. My fiance and I avoid fighting or arguing in front of our son but when others start screaming or fighting around him I try to get him away from it because I dont want it to affect him in the long run. I would also say foul language. My son constantly learns new words. This made me mad a year ago. It was halloween. My son was learning new words. My friend thought it was funny and taught him to say bi***. So he kept saying it off and on for a month. I kept doing tips like ignoring it or replacing it with other similar words like catch or something. Every now and then though he will say it. I dont punish him because its not his fault but I do try to correct him.

Hi Tee, Like you I hate it when people smoke of use foul language around kids. As for making out, I don't think such public displays of affection was ever accepted by my generation. I can't remember seeing any of it when I was growing up - maybe things were too hidden then. I think that there is a time and place for such affection and I don't think it is around children. Of course, as you say a hug and a kiss is fine, even necessary in my opinion, as it speaks of love. Anything more however, falls into the category of lust. Blessings.

It didn't occur to me to mention some of my own pet peeves. The things that do bother me more than your examples... Racist jokes...Racist behavior or talking about their racist or bigoted sentiments. Gossiping in front of kids. Lying or cheating in front of kids. Someone mentioned fighting in front of kids. I think that depends and they type of argument. An argument in which the adults are simply disagreeing but still remaining relatively respectful, I'm okay with. But once they start getting out have hand either verbally or physically, then that crosses the line.

I tend not to overreact to things, but yeah the behaviors you mentioned are objectionable. I think the order for me would be 1 - PDA's - like you said, a kiss or a hug is okay but tonsil hockey or groping? c'mon folks! get a room! 2- cursing - ironically, although I'm guilty of having a horrible potty mouth, even in front of my own children, I do not curse under certain circumstances. Around other peoples children, especially small children. Out in public where I don't know how the people around me feel about cursing. In front of most of my extended family. There is absolutely no logic to how I feel on this one...I curse in front of my kids, but I am completely offended when my niece curses in front of me and it bothers me when my kids curse, despite knowing I'm setting a horrible example for them. 3 - Smoking - I guess it's at the bottom because it really hasn't happened. Sure it would bother me, but I'd either say something or move away. Oddly very few of my friends are smokers and my acquaintances who are have decent manners about it. They'll even walk away from a group of adults to go smoke.

There are plenty of actions that i hate it when people do it infront of my kids.. 1. smoking! obviously it is dangerous and a health hazard.. i really do tell them to not smoke infront of my kids 2. swearing, they easily catch cuss words! 3. making out..because it elicit so many questions from the kids on why they are doing tha and so on and so forth... 4. fighting i hate it when i see people fighting in front of my kids, like couples fighting and arguing in front of them, they see violence in that...

Probably the worse one for me is some smoker blowing smoke in my childs face or smoking around them period. If you want to ruin your lungs and die young so be it, but stay away from my kids because I want them to live a long and happy life. Then it would probably be cursing. This isn't something that I think alot of kids pay attention to anymore becasue of hearing it on TV and movies and just about anyplace they go. You just have to realize that they are going to repeat things and it is up to the parent to let the child know that is not appropriate talk and will not be tolerated. That people who talk like that are being bad . Then we have the lovers in public. You know I think this is the most disgusting thing that can be done in public is to sit and make out in front of a bunch of strangers. Hey if you want to do that go home.make a video and sell it. Make yourself some money and then little eyes that don't need to see these things will not be exposed to them. flutterby

I'm not a big fan of people being drunk and obnoxious around my kids all the time. It just makes me as well as my children uncomfortable. I had a buddy of mine who would just get drunk as he can all of the time. I didn't like it and the kids didn't like it. I think as an adult you have to be responsible enough to realize that there are children present and respect that.

Hmm... there are many things that people do around my children that I find annoying. Firstly, there is smoking (although I smoke myself, I always go outside or wait until there are no children around and certainly neither of my children have ever seen me smoke!). Statistically, children who see their parents smoke are more likely to smoke later on and none of us would want our children to take up something that is going to harm them. Secondly, there is behaving like a lout. Not just swearing, but general bad behaviour including swearing. Where I live, there are what we call "chavs" who are basically young people who wear baseball caps and hooded tops. They behave aggressively all of the time and are often intimidating. Thirdly, there is selfishness. Being selfish in front of children only encourages them to be selfish because children will mimic what they see adults do. Fourthly, there are interfering busybodies who think they know more about caring for your children than you do! I don't mean healthcare professionals, I mean those random people that just walk up to you and start telling you how to feed/clothe/bathe/care for your child. I don't know if they do this because I am a man and they think that as such I am incapable of looking after a child. These people really get my goat! I think that's about it. People "making out" don't worry as such, although if they were in fact in flagrante so to speak I would be concerned. But a bit of snogging is fine - I would rather that my child saw two people being loving towards each other than being violent.

I like your list but I have a few peeves that are not on it: 1) racial comments made in front of children. I know many people who will make negative racial comments in front of their children like nothing is wrong with saying things like that. 2) people who actually tell their kids that they are dumb and will never need what they are learning in school. It happens and it drives me crazy, who are you to tell anyone what kind of education they are not going to need, all that happens in this situation is a child gives up on his/her dreams. The third one is where your list comes in and I would have to say, swearing then smoking then PDA. The only reason swearing comes first is because children repeat everything even if they do not understand it. That is also my reason for my number one.