To be shocked that not even one y4 child knew the meaning of the word velvet?

Just asked my year 5 son. He has heard of it but thought it was short for Velcro !

I retired 2 years ago - but velvety grey sofas were in quite a high % of houses I visted during my working day. Clients being in their 20 - 30's.

There's no velvet in my house at all to my knowledge. I don't thinks all that unusual...

I just asked my child (late primary years) and he couldn’t define it even though I wore a velvet dress on Christmas Day!

I've tried several times to read the velvet bunny and it's not good. Just asked dd who in year 5 and said it's something fluffy

Mountain dogs 😂😂

😳

I just asked my 8 yr old/yr 4 child and she knew. Was able to point to my velour trousers as an example of velvety material...North london state school. Reads a book a week on average.

None of that in my house.

I don’t own any velvety clothes none of us do.

I’ve never even heard of a velvet quilt.

Oh come on - besides magazines, you can see a velvet sofa on every bloody DFS ad! (“Sale ending Monday! New sale starts Tuesday!”). Not only that but there’s velvet tops and dresses for sale on damn near every website that sells slightly dressy things. I mean The Velvetine Rabbit? Mint Velvet? The bloody Hotel Chocolate Velvetizer? Ffs. (Not frustrated with you in particular @FreedomForFree - I just mean I think the whole thing is ridiculous).

I do think there’s a huge lack of curiosity about words now; half the children I know, when they hear a word and don’t know what it means, just don’t ask. I saw a fully grown adult American pronounce Jane Eyre as “Jane Eye-ree.” Nothing surprises me anymore. I also finished my university degree eight years after I started. It was very clear that the original students I was with were a lot “smarter” (more well-read, better vocabularies, better at logic, more well-informed) than those eight years later.

I am surprised, I’m afraid.

None of those children have a velvet quilt on a bed at home?

None of their mothers went to Christmas work parties in a velvet top? Or velvet trousers?

No velvet cushions on chairs?

Are velvet headbands out of fashion, now?

I get that velvet slippers might be outside their experience.

🤷‍♀️

I just asked DD, age 8/year 4 and she said ‘red velvet’ so I said, ‘no proper velvet and she said it’s a soft fabric. She reads a lot of old fashioned books so it’s probably from there. I don’t think it would be that unusual not to know though, but I would think a few out of 30 kids would have heard of it.

don't kids ever flip through newspapers or magazines any more?

No. Because many households don't have newspapers or magazines - I honestly can't remember the last time I bought one. It's different times - these sort of things are mainly on-line now. Very few people get papers/magazines/comics delivered the way they did when I was young.

Children will have a different vocabulary nowadays than they did when their parents were little. And their parents probably would have had a different vocabulary than their parents before them did. Times change. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I'm sure that children will know quite a few words that mean nothing much to their parents!

I've just asked my extremely intelligent older teen what it was. He didn't know. I haven't said velvet for years, the last time was probably in the 80s as a small child in a velvet dress. Kids don't need to know what velvet is

I've witnessed children over 7 who thought goats were dogs.

You never see velvet much - I think we had velvet ribbons when we were kids

Agreed with others that I'm not sure why this surprises you it your sister. It's hardly a common material and as for the poster talking about velvet sofas, I genuinely don't know anyone with a velvet sofa.

Thinking about it my sister in law has possibly a velvet sofa. She’s very Mrs hinch. Grey empty home

Just asked DS(6) who’s in Y2. He knew what it was, said they talked about different fabrics last year in school 🤷‍♀️

I probably knew what velvet was at that age.
Possibly because my mother was a seamstress 😆

When I was a little girl velvet was a common party dress fabric. It isn’t any more…

Yes I do lol.
Love velvet at Christmas time. I have velvet wide leg trousers, velvet skirt and a velvet blazer.

I’m sure that no matter what moment in time this has always been a “thing” ie. Adults expressing shock that children don’t know what something (probably not relevant in the modern age) is. Dd14 didn’t know what something was recently (can’t remember exactly what it was but something akin to velvet) and I was shocked - she is very intelligent, well read and we as a family talk about all kinds of things - it’s just that that particular thing had obviously never come up in conversation until now!

Earlier today we were telling dd20 and her friends about corporate punishment and dh getting hit with a ruler and they were so shocked and laughing hysterically (I don’t thing they believed us!) it’s just different generations.

It’s not velvet anymore. It’s generally velour as it’s cheaper.

I had a proper cerise velvet dress with a lace collar and knee high socks when l was little in the 70’s. Velvet was everywhere then!

This is making me feel out of sync with other people - quite a lot of my winter wardrobe is velvet! And so are my curtains!

And velvet sofas are fairly normal among my friends and relatives… the LOAF kind were very popular a few years ago, no? Wouldn’t consider velvet not in usage at all!