oomis1105: Very insightful!
When I first read the OP, I could relate to the issue, because I have children who travel that way. And on the first day he used the city bus, my son came home and said, “Mom, you should have heard some of the words being used on the bus! There was a bunch of kids talking really loud and whoa!…” Well, I began to re-think my decision to allow my children on the city bus.
But then, I thought again. Obviously, it was not the first time my son ever heard those words. Neither I nor my husband speak that way, yet my children are familiar with that type of phraseology. It seeps in, no matter how much you try to keep it out.
And yet, B”H, my children do not speak that way.
They have learned to deal with it in an appropriate way. They can be aware of it, hear it, and choose NOT to engage in the same behavior! They know they are different, and what they see and hear in the world out there just emphasizes that difference to them!
You know, I am more worried about what they learn and hear from their friends in Yeshiva than I am about what they hear on the city bus. Really, I mean it! C”V one of their friends convinces them that smoking is cool, or they decide that the guys who get drunk on Simchas Torah are cool. That is a much more likely scenario.
So my kids still travel the city bus, but now I’m OK with it. I have tried to educate them and continue to try to be mechanech my children to the best of my ability. And that, with Siyata D’Shmaya, is all I can do.