to think that it's weird to call boys 'little men' - would you call a girl 'little woman'?

[HouseOfBamboo]

Just that, really. Obviously 'lil' man is entirely unreasonable.

I'm with you OP. Little man / prince / princess. Just no!

I call all of my sons, "Little Man". I also call my daughter, "Gorgeous Girl". Both are terms of endearment that they all love, so I couldn't give a rats arse if it offends some crazy on MN.
I also call as they come into the house, "Here comes my favourite 18/17/16/etc year old in the world! And how was your day?!" Every single day. I'm probably a complete pita tbh

I day beautiful /gorgeous boy too.

I think people are missing the OP's point here. Of course it's not weird to say little man because it's so common. I think what OP is asking why is it so common when the equivalent of "little woman" would sound odd.

And whilst, as evidenced by the responses above, boys are regularly encouraged to aspire to be men girls are encouraged to aspire to be ladies. Why is that?

The theory (by Lakoff) is that you can tell a society's attitude towards a particular thing by the number of euphemisms it has for it. For example "Special" is a word that has replaced "retarded" because the latter had come to be seen as an insult. Likewise there have been more euphemisms for "woman" than "man", the current ones being "girl" (for a grown woman) and "lady". The word "woman" tends to have a slightly insulting ring to it and that is why people tend not to use it, to adults or children alike.

Yup, little man and little lady. Or little dude and little dudette. Or monkey face for all three of them.

Little man and little lady seem fine to me. Children are people.

My mil always referred to my daughter as "little woman". I always thought it was strange.

All min little lady and little man..nothing wrong with it.

I've never considered it, but you have an interesting point op.

Little man is cute, because men are these big grownup creatures and so a little one would be adorable.

I find the phrase little lady rather twee, as ladies are obviously charming and a bit childlike anyway.

I am aware of how awful ^^ sounds. Shit. I had no idea that I thought this!

actually this is interesting. I refer to men as gentlemen when out and about "let the gentleman past", "go and ask that gentleman". And I would always say lady in that situation, saying "go and ask that woman" sounds rude to me somehow.
Also woman makes me think of "becoming a woman", like starting periods I guess. So saying little woman is odd because you can't be a little version of one. Maybe. But lady is just a female person and in old use it to refer to anyone over the age of about 14 probably. Which to be fair is more or less when ladies would be women according to my criteria.

DH uses the words "bloke" and "chap" to refer to men a fair bit. I wouldn't call my kids little bloke but I might little chap.

Words are interesting. Funnily enough I wouldn't generally call my daughter "little girl" as it sounds a bit creepy to me. But then I would use that to refer to someone else "there was a little girl in soft play today".

I will think on this some more after my initial knee jerk response to the OP...

I frequently referred to DS1 as 'little man' until I found MNet and discovered that it is actually a crime. Then I just carried on using it. DH still calls DD 'little lady'.
DS2 tends to go by the name 'little fucker' although (mostly) not to his face.

Yes, it was actually said with awareness of bollocks it is, zzzz!

I am a lady myself and don't fit my own description at all, which adds to the interestingness.

The head teacher at my kids school calls them all 'little people'.. 'please collect your little person earlier today'

People post this from time to time, but it isn't true.

Lil Man is a bit vomit inducing, but an equal number of people seem to use "Little Lady" (or "little princess"...) I think they all fall under the same category.

It just isn't the case that baby boys/ male children are the only ones referred to as little adults, it is done regarding both genders.

I call my kids Mr/Miss Surname when they are in minor trouble, which causes mass hysteria amount the staff at my 3 yous Kindergarten for some reason...

its basically the same as "chicky" or "ducky" for a girl and "mister" for a boy iyswim

Oh yes. the older than 13s "children" thing. At high school I hated being called a child. I wasn't a child, I was a young person, get to year 11, you're a young adult.

I can only imagine Americans saying Lil' man. Its cute though, but I'd sound so weird saying it.

Wee woman is said here sometimes.

Sorry I've been offending you

I knew someone who had two DD's, they were always referred to little lady no 1 and little lady no 2. I often wondered why they bothered to give them names as they never used them.