Yes, but swearing gets a lot more attention - as you just demonstrated ;-)

My kid can swear like a sailor if she's being abducted and hearing a little girl say "fücking bëllend" will get someone to pay attention to what's happening and stop it.

F**k acceptable i want my kid to get help as soon as, if that means swearing to get attention i don't care

SERIOUSLY? Your child is being abducted...to be murdered, sold, or God only knows what else, and SWEARING is what your worried about???

Teaching a kid to swear (and fight) in danger is VERY ACCEPTABLE. My daughter was a gorgeous kid and skinny. I taught her to swear and it's saved her from predatory harassment many times. PREDATORS go after "nice" kids; i.e. "PREY."

I am not concerned about acceptable if my child is being abducted.

If someone is trying to kidnap my son acceptable went out the window a long time ago

In a kidnapping, noticeable trumps acceptable.

Wow. Ya know, you've really got your priorities straight lady. It's refreshing to see someone that understands that even when your children are in immanent danger, the most important thing is that they not say certain words that some people have made a choice to be offended by. They could be kidnapped, raped, abused, sold into sexual slavery or killed, but that simply doesn't matter! The most important thing is that they not upset your f*****g notion of decency. Mother of the century you must be.

Imagine been someone, who would like a child who is being abducted, to do so politely.

FFS, a child is being kidnapped and you're concerned with others delicate sensibilities?!! It's not "swearing freely", mor@n!

If my kids getting kidnapped I don't care if they swear stab the person bite their face whatever helps them get the attention of a safe adult or gives them a chance to get away is fine by me.... Like do we really care if they swear versus letting some creep kidnap them Jesus....

I like the teaching kids to swear part though

And that's the point! I'd rather my kid be seen as inappropriate than to vanish or die.

You must be the BP editor!

i dont care about being polite if im kidnapped

If it protects my child I'm happy for her to swear. Anyway, yelling Stranger would only get a glance here, but children swearing fluently is unusual even for the UK

'Acceptable' responses could result in the child's abduction; teach them to shout epithets and scream as loudly as they can.

You're not wanting them to be acceptable in a dangerous situation!! You want your child to draw as much attention as possible!!

And after that I would guess that 'thoughts and prayers' were the next step?

Yeah. Because decorum is more desirable than teaching a kid how to help save their own life

You do realize the language is constantly evolving and what’s not acceptable today was acceptable 100 years ago and will once again be acceptable in a short time. You realize the word f**k used to be the last name of people at one point. We define what is and is not acceptable and don’t get me started on how this applies to biblical commands. (Ok I’ll start, the words we consider awful atrocities didn’t even exist when the Bible was written. The let no foul thing come from your mouth isn’t about the words, it’s the intention behind the words. So telling someone to drop dead and go to hell is far worse than f*****g hell I forgot my password again. And don’t forget hell is used a lot in the Bible. Same with the word a*s. So just get over your moral high ground over words that didn’t even exist or were used even by Jesus. You are making a fool of yourself by CHOOSING to be offended by words.)

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In school they taught us to yell "Fire" to get people's attention

Yes, "this is a stranger, he's not my dad" is the best response.

A lot of good points here. Unfortunately nowadays if they see a children cussing at an adult they might gawk and think " What a brat!". I only wonder about this this because I've heard young children wearing at parents before. Yelling "I don't know you" would would work well, in my opinion.

Unless it’s a child predator. Chances are better they have a change of clothes on hand and will quickly cut a child’s hair to alter their appearance further.

Only until the adult says something like that’s enough of that you’re going straight to bed when we get home… everyone around will believe the adult is with the child and the child is just a brat. Boom, child gone. Sure hope your delicate sensibilities will comfort you while you allow a child to be taken. Way to go

Until the adult who can actually think faster on their feet says sorry to bother you, this child’s outbursts are becoming embarrassing. Hope your delicate sensibilities comfort you hours later when you find out about the kidnapping on the news. Way to go!

Fire has become such a common thing for people to yell as pranks, it’s not as effective as it used to be. Besides, someone yelling fire, people that believed that would take off to save their own lives. Not the life of the child or person yelling it. Besides, if you are able to yell fire, you will sound like someone who is already fleeing for safety while warning others of impending danger. This is a very outdated way to respond.

Because children never throw tantrums in public unless they are being abducted. FFS

Maybe in the 50s

And your daughter will continue to scream fire until the adult gets them bundled up and into a waiting car while apologizing for the poor behavior of “their” child.

No you wouldn’t. You’d stick around to see if this crying, screaming and cursing child is safe or not.

As a former 911 dispatcher, I can confirm this is not what happens on the whole

Spawn of Satan draws more attention. Spawn of Satan also puts up such loud and vocal resistance that the adult involved is more likely to give up their attempt and take off. All the while looking for that quiet child left briefly unattended on the egress. So angelic cherubim gets taken. Spawn of satan goes home. Hmmmm. Might wanna rethink this suggestion.