If 85 swears is a daily average, what’s happening on the jobsite?

I devour Psychology Today magazine.

As a non-psychologist and as someone working in home improvement, it may seem weird.

But, no. I love the editors’ little factoid nuggets that make my eyes widen and literally talk back to magazine: ‘NO WAY!’

Here’s one for you to enjoy. A recent article — Language: Profane Brain — included many interesting statistics and details about taboo words from around the world.

I’ve focused in on one stat:

“85 is the number of taboo or swear words spoken, per day, by the average English speaker.”

Now if 85 is the average number of swear words, what’s that mean for the lexicon shared on many construction sites?

As my husband says, it’s not gentle work. And I guess my wonderment is that if 85 is the average, I wonder what the average is on jobsites.

We try to keep everything we speak G-rated out of consideration for our kids and our clients. And to Mark’s credit, he tries to use Lexi’s advice and choose to say Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah when he feels his blood pressure rise.

But if there’s a slip of the tongue when we’re working outside, Mark always follows-it-up in an equally loud voice to the kids in the neighborhood: “Sorry!”