AIBU to hate the expression "small people"?

[WhatsGoingOnEh]

When people mean "children"?

It just strikes me as needlessly twee and patronising. Children aren't small people, they're young people.

But more than that, I just find it teeth-grindingly irritating. AIBU?

Maybe 'the small young people' is better, to differentiate them from the small wizened people.

No, YANBU.

And that MN is generally twee-free is one of the things I like about it.

(note: other parenting sites are available).

But they are small people.

Children are generally small people as well as young people though.

If mine are anything to go by 'unreasonable people' and 'messy people' would also be appropriate descriptors.

I'm with you. I don't know why, but it really grates on me.

You wouldn't call puppes "small dogs".

It sort of seems like the kind of phrase people use when they're trying not to offend. But I don't think any child has ever been offended to be called a child.

• to have been called a child, even.

I like it, so YABU.

Has any child ever been offended by being called a small person?

As a small person (adult), it's a bit confusing.

There's shit loads of twee on MN (I luffs, I luffs, I fucking luffs) but 'small people' doesn't really ping my twee radar.

And why is luffs always Sue Perkins related? Everyone apparently 'luffs' that woman.

God help her.

YANBU.

The expression really grates on me. Though it's not as bad as 'smalls' (which pops up on my FB feed occasionally) or 'littlies'.

How about "bogey eaters"?

For people who use the phrase "small people", may I ask why you do? What purpose does it serve?

Do you call eggs "small chickens"?

"Though it's not as bad as 'smalls' (which pops up on my FB feed occasionally)"

Smalls = undies

Lots of scope for confusion there!

Cos they are people. Who are small.

I call eggs lunch.

I call them this sometimes because I luffs a bit of twee-ness.

scaevola I assumed she was talking about her DCs when she posted that she was mortified when her 'smalls' kept running about during a Christening. But it's possible I misread the situation .

Yanbu. And 'littlies' makes me die a bit inside also.

'Do you call eggs "small chickens"?'

I don't think eggs are comparable to children.

Eggs are comparable to foetuses surely? And no-one refers to a foetus as a 'small person'.

Chicks are the chicken equivalent to children. So the question should really be 'Do you call chicks small chickens? And the answer would be, yeah sometimes .

You have cheered me up enormously, TheWhiteRoad , with the image of a flock of pants swooping round a church totally out of control.