To not like it when my daughter is referred to as a flirt?

[CruCru]

She is 14 months and very friendly, that's all.

[CleanLinesSharpEdges]

YANBU. It makes my toes curl. The same when people post photos on FB of "my sexy little man/princess". There's nothing sexy about a child.

[trufflesnout]

Ew! YANBU, that's completely gross

[littlemslazybones]

Yeah, I know, I don't like it either.

I am aware that when people say this they mean that babies and toddlers are predisposed to use their physicality, big eyes and smiles, to draw you in -so you don't get fed up of them and leave them for the next passing predator. But 'flirt' has such sexual connotations I hate the way it is used in reference to reference this behaviour.

[SleepyMcgee]

That's weird. Who said it?

[smokinggnu]

That is really wrong. YANBU. Tell them to wash their mouth out.

[TheChandler]

Whaaat? Ugh. YANBU!!!

[FelixFelix]

A woman said this to me in a coffee shop recently because 11mo dd was smiling at her husband. Very very weird.

[GirlInASwirl]

Top cringe! ....Along with 'I bet you can wrap your Mum around your little finger with those eyes!'. Blerg!

[HumblePieMonster]

Challenge it. Some old people use it - they must be very old by now because they were old when I was young.

[DoraGora]

You could maybe have a little line prepared like: she's too young to flirt, but cute enough to hurt

or somesuch, which gets the message across in a firm, but non-confrontational way. I'm pretty sure that if an older lady says this about a baby, she doesn't actually mean it with the dodgy connotation at all. What she's trying to say is what a lovely child. But, she's obviously chosen a phrase which is long past its sell by date. There's no point in causing a massive intergenerational row over it. The message can be delivered nicely and no harm done.

[AnnieLobeseder]

That really is inappropriate and gross. I'm bolshy as hell when it comes to sexism and sexualisation of children so I would definitely have challenged them and made comments about inappropriate use of language for children.

[ClawHandsIfYouBelieveInFreaks]

YANBU. My DH once said to a woman "No...she's not a flirt, she's a baby. THey're unaware of that concept."

She was but it must have made her think.

[Gruntfuttock]

A comment on a YouTube video described an 8 month old baby as "so cute and sexy". It was said by a young woman btw. I don't understand how some people's minds work.

[MrsPiggie]

I've never heard a young child described as sexy or a flirt, this is so inappropriate.

[APocketfulOfSpondulix]

YANBU. Very creepy.

I was on a train once with a woman who referred to my baby DD as a flirt and then, when she started to smile and laugh at some women, as a lesbian. I am afraid I didn't keep my cool.

[Viviennemary]

YANBU. That's really inappropriate.

[Greyhound]

When I was a little girl, an old man told me I looked good enough to be raped

[MistletoeBUTNOwine]

My mum says that of dd when she was a baby and smiling at a man

[Aherdofmims]

People say it about my ds 9 months all the time.

It has struck me as nonsensical but I've never felt offended. Mayne I've been slower to see the inappropriate side because he is a boy.

But what they mean is that he is charming and an attention seeker wwhich is true.

[Riverland]

I assume then, that in ye olden tymes, flirting wasn't a sexual thing, or at least, not necessarily so.

How things change!

[PurpleSwift]

People say it to my LB because he smiles at all the ladies. It doesn't particularly bother me. "Flirt" doesn't solely mean something sexual.

[bruffin]

I dont think its particularly inappropriate either. My dd was a terrible flirt to strange men usually on the train, fluttering her eyelashes at them etc She always got their attention , in a nice way. I even had a student type say to me, i normally dont like babies, but shes got character! Shes 17 now and just a bubbly social type with loads of friends, but not really interested in boys atm

[Marcipex]

Omg Greyhound

[glintwithpersperation]

I don't think of flirting as always a sexual thing either.