Millennial Mom Defends Viral Video of 3-Year-Old ‘Swearing’

A mom-of-three has defended herself against the “hate” she has received online after posting a video poking fun at the idea of her daughter “swearing.”

Allissa Evans from New South Wales in Australia posted a 12-second video to TikTok of herself and her three-year-old daughter performing a skit to the tune of the GloRilla track bad bih 4 ya. An onscreen caption, seemingly attributed to an unspecified critic of Evans’ parenting style, reads: “You need to stop swearing around the kids.”

Evans is cradling her daughter throughout the video. Around the five-second mark in the video, the toddler turns to the camera, still in her mom’s arms, to mime along to an expletive in the GloRilla track playing over the video.

It’s timed perfectly to give the impression she is the one swearing and serves as an amusing message of defiance to any of Evans’ would-be critics out there.

Evans told Newsweek the video was created for a bit of fun. “It’s just a trending sound that’s going around on TikTok and people have been doing similar things with either other adults or kids,” she said. “I just decided to give it a go with my daughter and she just happened to time it perfectly. I think it’s just popular as it’s a trending sound and the unexpected perfect timing of a child doing it is hilarious.”

It’s certainly proven popular, with 2 million views and counting, as well as close to 1,200 comments. Not every response has been positive, though. “As a teacher, you make our jobs so much harder,” one viewer said. “This is so wrong,” another wrote, with a third adding: “bad parenting.”

Plenty of people posted positive responses defending the skit. “Parents who don’t allow swearing around their kids have kids that swear the most,” one viewer wrote, with another agreeing: “Everyone getting pressed. She has a wicked sense of humour.”

Evans has been surprised by how much the video has blown up and while she acknowledges she has been getting “a bit of hate” most have been able to see the funny side.

“Honestly the hate is expected with a video getting so many views and attention,” she said. “There is always going to be different opinions and views on things, so it’s expected to get some hate or negative comments. I just take it as a grain of salt.”

She also had a message for those criticizing her skills as a parent: “Lighten up.”

“I know my children are respectful and well-mannered kids, and people are judging my parenting and my children off a silly little 15-second video, it’s pretty crazy,” she said.

“No harm was done by creating this video, it was a bit of fun. The people online mum shaming and judging are the only ones that could possibly do any harm. It’s just lucky I’m not one to worry about the comments.”

Evans nevertheless felt her stance on swearing around her children was a valid one. To her way of thinking, context is key.

“I don’t think swearing around them is the issue, I think it’s the way it is used,” she said. “If it were to be used in a harmful or abusive way then there is an issue with swearing. But I believe just casually swearing such as singing along to a song has no harm and doesn’t impact their well-being.”

There is a valid argument to Evans’ stance. It was previously put forward by Benjamin Bergen, a cognitive scientist and the author of the book What the F: What Swearing Reveals About Our Language, Our Brains, and Ourselves.

In 2016, he argued in the LA Times that there is no proof that “exposure to ordinary profanity — four-letter words — causes any sort of direct harm: no increased aggression, stunted vocabulary, numbed emotions or anything else.”

While not everyone will agree with Evans’ stance, her only real hope for the video is that it gets some kind of positive reaction. “It was all a bit of fun and if it helps to change the opinions for the better or even just bring a bit of a laugh for someone, then I’m all for that,” she said.