I know its been done a million times but... LITTLE MAN

[whatwhatinthewhatnow]

My child will not be called little man. The reason? You shout that in public and every boy child aged 10 or under will turn around.

Ive had it with Facebook updates about 'My little man...', people saying to me about my bump 'Hows that little man doing?', and conversations with family members about how well their little men are doing at school. We dont call daughters 'Little women'???

What did we call our sons before this awful meme started?! And how to I subtley veer DP away from doing it?!

AIBU?

I can see many problems with the generalisation thing. Ie

'Wee man/Little Man, come in for dinner'

Who are you talking to? Son? Brother? Nephew? Your husbands cock?

Kids need an identity, dont they.

You honestly think that calling my son little man will make him think he is no different to the other little men? You are vastly over thinking this. Boys are like men - only smaller. Thats where it comes from. Not from some inability to see how special and unique your own child is. What a bizarre judgement to make!

I think you could be vastly underthinking this, Gravy.

Imagine if we all had the same MN log in name. How very uniform and dull.

I am missing something here, these nicknames are what we use at home. When in public or in an environment when I want his attention I use his name. It's what I gave him a god dam name for? yeesh

DS1 is Boy or sometimes The Boy which is causing confusion as we now sometimes call DS2 the same way.

I use Little Man sometimes.

I never hear my friends call their boys by their names unless they are in trouble or are about to get themselves in trouble! The rest of the time its Little man!

But arent our MN names just nicknames?

I only use these names at home as well and I wont be calling him little man or champ or ratbag when he is older so cant see how that is the same as MN name for adults... DS wouldn't know if I was calling him a bloody little shit as long as I said it in a sing song voice so dont think little man is going to have any long term damage....

However if i had officially named him pal, little mand or Buddy Bear Maurice then i could understand that I could asking for trouble..

Round here we regularly have

Little Man
Miss
My Lad
My Lass
Duck
Dolly
Dearie
My Loves

I'm surprised the whole family hasn't perished of terminal twee....

Perhaps we should stop referring to our children as children too, I know so many people who use that name. I shall henceforth refer to them as fhfhdhdj, fhruyjik, and sjukwuu. And if any of you bastards copy me I shall have to hunt you down...

oi mrsgravy I have a fhruyjik so back away..

YANBU to not want to use it yourself, but YABU to object to other people doing it to their kids, whatwhat. What business is it of yours?

I refer to my ds as little man, little boy, little love and sweetpea. He still gets called by his name!

I use Little Man if I am talking about DS on facebook etc, more to protect his identity from any weirdo's but I don't call it him to his face.

He is my little man anyway and I like it so ner.

I must be living in a different world to you all, I've never heard a child being called or referred to as 'little man'. Most peculiar.

Oh bum. Something else to worry about. I am clearly making my 14 month old feel undervalued, common and part of the herd.
Better come up with an original nickname for him.
I shall call him "little Slartibartfast".
Off to email everyone in his life to inform them of his new nickname.
No "little man", "wee man" or "little man boo" from his parents. No "gorgeous boy" from his gran. No "Boo baby" from his auhty.
Little Slartibartfast it is.

Sorry annec we already use Slartibartfast, well actually Slartifartfast for DS2.

slumps in despair at having failed again
Very well, Morloth, clearly we cannot both use the same nickname or be ridiculed for being unoriginal.
Recall all emails! Little Slartibartfast is off the table!
Hmmm.
How about "The Mayor of Casterbridge"? That should prove to everyone that I have given the appropriate level of intellectual thought to the problem.

Oops. Didn't know asterixes around a phrase made it go bold!

Forget it, anne. Being northern, you're already common. Not naming him and calling him Little Lord Fauntleroy? Well, you may as well send him up chimeys or down the pits.

You should just call him 'mother fucker' or something along those lines, you know, to set him apart from the herds of hoi polloi.

Morloth DH and I have always called our DS The Boy. Hope they don't go to the same school.

You get tshirts and sleepsuits with Little Man on. I avoid them, just as I would those with Little Princess on if I had a DD.

Expat - you should have heard what my OH called him (after he had gone to bed to be fair) when he discovered he had hidden the remote control for the umpteenth time.
And my OH isn't even a northerner!
Let's just say it wasn't the type of thing that gets put on babygros...

I often call ds "little man", sometimes I sing it to him: "little man, little man, little little little man" He does correct me though "I'm not a man mummy, I'm a boy!"

'Little maaaaaaaannnnn' around where I live, I've always loathed the expression.

I don't say "the boy" or "manshape" [boak] but have to agree that "little man" is no different than the Scots' "wee man". Why people think that it would replace a child's real name is beyond me.

Horrible term, I agree.

I hate it

I have someone on facebook who called her baby boy 'the prince' and her daughter 'the princess' do we jokingly call her 'the queen' and her partner 'the king'

blergh!