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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

AIBU to hate the expression "small people"?

47 replies

WhatsGoingOnEh · 10/04/2015 20:11

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?

OP posts:
squoosh · 10/04/2015 20:13

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

AuntieStella · 10/04/2015 20:13

No, YANBU.

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

(note: other parenting sites are available).

butterflyballs · 10/04/2015 20:14

But they are small people.

OutragedFromLeeds · 10/04/2015 20:15

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.

mermaid101 · 10/04/2015 20:16

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

Original poster
WhatsGoingOnEh · 10/04/2015 20:16

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
WhatsGoingOnEh · 10/04/2015 20:18
  • to have been called a child, even.
OP posts:
ragged · 10/04/2015 20:18

I like it, so YABU.

squoosh · 10/04/2015 20:19

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

JohnFarleysRuskin · 10/04/2015 20:19

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

squoosh · 10/04/2015 20:20

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.

squoosh · 10/04/2015 20:21

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

God help her.

TheWhiteRoad · 10/04/2015 20:21

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'.

TiggyOBE · 10/04/2015 20:21

How about "bogey eaters"?

Original poster
WhatsGoingOnEh · 10/04/2015 20:23

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

OP posts:
Original poster
WhatsGoingOnEh · 10/04/2015 20:25

Do you call eggs "small chickens"?

OP posts:
scaevola · 10/04/2015 20:26

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

Smalls = undies

Lots of scope for confusion there!

NobodyLivesHere · 10/04/2015 20:27

Cos they are people. Who are small.

butterflyballs · 10/04/2015 20:28

I call eggs lunch.

liveloveluggage · 10/04/2015 20:31

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

TheWhiteRoad · 10/04/2015 20:32

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 .

MrsPeterQuill · 10/04/2015 20:33

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

OutragedFromLeeds · 10/04/2015 20:36

'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 Grin.

scaevola · 10/04/2015 20:40

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

TheWhiteRoad · 10/04/2015 20:45
Grin