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Daycare Center and Family Home Forum>Kid as a Perjorative?
DaveA 11:52 AM 05-12-2015
I had a run-in with our local "Supernanny" at the library. She enjoys correcting "mistakes" other providers whether they want the advice or not. I was told I should "know better" than use the word "kid" to describe a child as kid is not the appropriate term and is belittling or dismissive on the child. She got my usual "Thanks for the advice I wasn't asking for" response.

Has anyone else heard this? Or is my streak of finding the nutcases when I go out in public continuing?
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Rockgirl 12:11 PM 05-12-2015
I've heard it, but choose to ignore it....I say 'kid' all the time!
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laundrymom 12:16 PM 05-12-2015
Sorry. Old school here.
Why shouldn't I call kids.. Kids?
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Unregistered 12:20 PM 05-12-2015
LOL! When I was in college, I had a retired elementary school teacher correct me by saying, "Kids are young goats." (I bet these people are a lot of fun at parties!)
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AmyLeigh 12:23 PM 05-12-2015
I've heard it too. I even stopped using kid to refer to children for quite some time. I get the reasoning, but language changes and it doesn't carry quite the disrespect it did years ago. I have since started to use it on occasion, but it still feels awkward at times. My go to word is kiddos. It feels, I don't know, maybe more affectionate.

But yeah, you seem to be attracting some 'interesting' people while out in public.
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Unregistered 12:26 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by DaveArmour:
I had a run-in with our local "Supernanny" at the library. She enjoys correcting "mistakes" other providers whether they want the advice or not. I was told I should "know better" than use the word "kid" to describe a child as kid is not the appropriate term and is belittling or dismissive on the child. She got my usual "Thanks for the advice I wasn't asking for" response.

Has anyone else heard this? Or is my streak of finding the nutcases when I go out in public continuing?
When I'm striving to sound professional, such as at interviews, I use 'child' and 'children' but in everyday daycare life, I say 'kid' and 'kids'. I think it sounds friendlier and warmer.
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Blackcat31 12:37 PM 05-12-2015
Its part of the "text book" politically correct stuff.....

You know the stuff that sounds fantastic on paper but is ridiculously silly when applied to real life.

Calling a child anything but what they are is considered demeaning and/or inappropriate. Much like saying I am a girl. I am not a girl, I am a woman. Whatever.... gal, lady, woman, girl, female, lassie.... it's all silly if you ask me....

The one thing I learned in college is whoever came up with some of this stuff has obviously never actually worked with children. or kids.
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Kabob 12:39 PM 05-12-2015
I get what she's saying but it sounds like her delivery is a little tough to deal with (for lack of better words).

As far as "kids" go, I've heard certain ways we refer to people can be offensive, but often I think it depends on the delivery and each person. I call the children here nicknames like "hun" or "kiddo" affectionately and then their full name is used when I need their attention...usually my ds gets his middle name used too when he is in trouble.

Kind of like how some words are used to describe everyday things (not sure if those words are allowed here) but some people try to use those same words to refer to something they believe is stupid. We still use the words for the original purpose, even though some people have used the word in a hurtful manner intentionally or unintentionally.

The English language feels like a mine field sometimes.
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Blackcat31 12:47 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by Kabob:

The English language feels like a mine field sometimes.
"The Chaos"

Dearest creature in creation,
Study English pronunciation.
I will teach you in my verse
Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.
I will keep you, Suzy, busy,
Make your head with heat grow dizzy.
Tear in eye, your dress will tear.
So shall I! Oh hear my prayer.

Just compare heart, beard, and heard,
Dies and diet, lord and word,
Sword and sward, retain and Britain.
(Mind the latter, how it's written.)
Now I surely will not plague you
With such words as plaque and ague.
But be careful how you speak:
Say break and steak, but bleak and streak;
Cloven, oven, how and low,
Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe.

Hear me say, devoid of trickery,
Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore,
Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles,
Exiles, similes, and reviles;
Scholar, vicar, and cigar,
Solar, mica, war and far;
One, anemone, Balmoral,
Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel;
Gertrude, German, wind and mind,
Scene, Melpomene, mankind.

Billet does not rhyme with ballet,
Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet.
Blood and flood are not like food,
Nor is mould like should and would.
Viscous, viscount, load and broad,
Toward, to forward, to reward.
And your pronunciation's OK
When you correctly say croquet,
Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve,
Friend and fiend, alive and live.

Ivy, privy, famous; clamour
And enamour rhyme with hammer.
River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb,
Doll and roll and some and home.
Stranger does not rhyme with anger,
Neither does devour with clangour.
Souls but foul, haunt but aunt,
Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant,
Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger,
And then singer, ginger, linger,
Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge,
Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age.

Query does not rhyme with very,
Nor does fury sound like bury.
Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth.
Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath.
Though the differences seem little,
We say actual but victual.
Refer does not rhyme with deafer.
Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer.
Mint, pint, senate and sedate;
Dull, bull, and George ate late.
Scenic, Arabic, Pacific,
Science, conscience, scientific.

Liberty, library, heave and heaven,
Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven.
We say hallowed, but allowed,
People, leopard, towed, but vowed.
Mark the differences, moreover,
Between mover, cover, clover;
Leeches, breeches, wise, precise,
Chalice, but police and lice;
Camel, constable, unstable,
Principle, disciple, label.

Petal, panel, and canal,
Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal.
Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair,
Senator, spectator, mayor.
Tour, but our and succour, four.
Gas, alas, and Arkansas.
Sea, idea, Korea, area,
Psalm, Maria, but malaria.
Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean.
Doctrine, turpentine, marine.

Compare alien with Italian,
Dandelion and battalion.
Sally with ally, yea, ye,
Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key.
Say aver, but ever, fever,
Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver.
Heron, granary, canary.
Crevice and device and aerie.

Face, but preface, not efface.
Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass.
Large, but target, gin, give, verging,
Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging.
Ear, but earn and wear and tear
Do not rhyme with here but ere.
Seven is right, but so is even,
Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen,
Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk,
Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work.

Pronunciation -- think of Psyche!
Is a paling stout and spikey?
Won't it make you lose your wits,
Writing groats and saying grits?
It's a dark abyss or tunnel:
Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale,
Islington and Isle of Wight,
Housewife, verdict and indict.

Finally, which rhymes with enough --
Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough?
Hiccough has the sound of cup.
My advice is to give up!!!


http://www.wordsmith.org/awad/english.html
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Kabob 12:50 PM 05-12-2015
I had a Swedish/Norwegian professor in college. He said the English language was the hardest to learn.

Great poem BC.
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DaveA 12:54 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by Blackcat31:
Its part of the "text book" politically correct stuff.....

You know the stuff that sounds fantastic on paper but is ridiculously silly when applied to real life.
God save us from academics. PC stuff drives me nuts. And that poem is way too true.

Originally Posted by AmyLeigh:

But yeah, you seem to be attracting some 'interesting' people while out in public.
It amazes my wife. She thinks they have a map or something telling where I'm at.
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AmyLeigh 12:55 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by Kabob:
I had a Swedish/Norwegian professor in college. He said the English language was the hardest to learn.

Great poem BC.
I have several friends who are from different countries and are multilingual, highly educated individuals. They ask my 8 year old how to pronounce certain words in English.
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Blackcat31 01:35 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by AmyLeigh:
I have several friends who are from different countries and are multilingual, highly educated individuals. They ask my 8 year old how to pronounce certain words in English.
Most folks FROM this country don't speak/pronounce things the same.

I feel sorry for those that are ELS.
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Josiegirl 02:27 PM 05-12-2015
Guess she wouldn't want to hear what I call some of them when they're not around then.

I remember hearing that awhile back too, then started questioning myself as to how the particular person I was talking with would react if I said kid instead of child. Geez, so much stress just to have a conversation so I said forget this....they're kids.

Hahaha, yeh, some fun at parties.
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Leigh 03:40 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by DaveArmour:
I had a run-in with our local "Supernanny" at the library. She enjoys correcting "mistakes" other providers whether they want the advice or not. I was told I should "know better" than use the word "kid" to describe a child as kid is not the appropriate term and is belittling or dismissive on the child. She got my usual "Thanks for the advice I wasn't asking for" response.

Has anyone else heard this? Or is my streak of finding the nutcases when I go out in public continuing?
Next time, instead of the "usual", try a 1-finger salute. Maybe she'll get the picture then!
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Unregistered 04:01 PM 05-12-2015
As Kimmy Gilbert would say ... 'How rude!'
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Thriftylady 04:45 PM 05-12-2015
Originally Posted by Leigh:
Next time, instead of the "usual", try a 1-finger salute. Maybe she'll get the picture then!
Yeah, I am guessing the kids were in tow! But I love poems like the one BC posted. And BC is right, The English language at least the English we use here the same words vary so much, even in small areas these days. Is your shopping cart a cart or a buggy? Is your tomato a tOmato or a tAmato?

I will never forget when I went to Sweden as an exchange student and announce to my host family one day when we were out and about "I have to go to the bathroom anyone know where it is?". They looked at me like I had grown extra body parts and then I realized to them to "have" is not something you do, it is something you own. The proper word was "must". Because they use British English. Way different than our lax depends where you live English. I think either way English is hard to learn, but to come here it is likely worse.
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childcaremom 04:55 PM 05-12-2015
Never heard of it. I refer to them as kids, kidlets, children, littles, etc.

I enjoy the supernanny types every so often. They make me smile.
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NeedaVaca 08:06 AM 05-13-2015
I would have just said "That's interesting" followed by "Hey kids, let's get going (or whatever you were doing next)" lol
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Fiddlesticks 08:19 AM 05-13-2015
I had a college professor tell me that it is a diminishing term. I don't think it is, so I still use it. When I say, "Hey kids, let's…." It is usually light hearted and something fun that they will want to do. If I say, "Children…" Well, it's akin to using a full name… they rarely like what's coming next!
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daycare 08:42 AM 05-13-2015
I am ESL and I have to say that after being in this country for almost 20 years and studying the language since childhood, I still don't understand a lot of it. Especially slang, idioms and words with multiple meaning, different spelling.

It took me about 10 years to understand

there, their they're, they are
or two, too, and too
deer and dear................

When someone told me a few years ago A penny for your thoughts, I was upset I didn't get paid....it's funny now, confusing then.

I don't get caught up in that whole politically correct term things unless it would offend their gender. Like the day I opened the front door during daycare and said look the mail man is here and it was a woman. She corrected me and said, your postal carrier is here, then grinned at me... I didn't say anything back, I just felt silly..

here is what the dictionary says about the word kid

informal
a child or young person.
synonyms: child, youngster, little one, baby, toddler, tot, infant, boy/girl, young person, minor, juvenile, adolescent, teenager, youth, stripling; More
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sally 10:25 AM 05-13-2015
When I was about 10 I used to make my sister's postal carrier mad. I called her the femailman. She would walk off in a huff but it was funny to me then.
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Play Care 10:38 AM 05-13-2015
I have nothing but respect for people who are ESL. They might not always understand the nuances of the language, but they can speak another language while I barely manage one. I'm just in awe.

But yeah, it's kids here too I'll have to ask them if they feel slighted or upset in anyway.
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daycarediva 11:39 AM 05-13-2015
Because children as so PC and easily offended, amiright?
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daycare 12:55 PM 05-13-2015
Originally Posted by daycarediva:
Because children as so PC and easily offended, amiright?
lol yeah they are....NOOOOTTTTTTT..

I think I told you about a training that I went to and they were saying that when we are working in any field that we deal with people face to face we need to be very careful that we always use PC terms, or we could end up in a law suit....they were so silly I actually LOL in the class and I am pretty sure that the instructor got mad at me.....
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Fiddlesticks 03:05 PM 05-13-2015
Originally Posted by daycarediva:
Because children as so PC and easily offended, amiright?
Well...I don't know...I have one that is offended if I call him by his name because right now he is not his name, he is Scary Dragon instead, so...
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Blackcat31 03:10 PM 05-13-2015
Originally Posted by Fiddlesticks:
Well...I don't know...I have one that is offended if I call him by his name because right now he is not his name, he is Scary Dragon instead, so...
I have one that insists that his name is "Rocket Man" and another that only wants me to address him as Mr "his last name"

...must be the age.
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momofsix 06:52 AM 05-14-2015
Originally Posted by Unregistered:
LOL! When I was in college, I had a retired elementary school teacher correct me by saying, "Kids are young goats." (I bet these people are a lot of fun at parties!)
Same here-only time I was corrected was by a college prof in a paper. "Kids are baby goats" lol
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