To wonder why some people call male babies "little man" but don't call female babies "little woman"?

[TheHouseOnTheLane]

I've seen a few people on here who don't like the term "Little Man" and I'm one of them.

I couldn't articulate why until just now...when I realised it's because nobody calls female babies "little woman"...they might say "Little Lady" but they don't want to call a baby girl a woman because they like infantalising females....and it's not "flattering" or something for a girl baby to be called a woman whereas a male baby can't be "manly" soon enough because being a man is always a positive thing....am I right?

I say Little Woman all the time.
As in, "thanks for helping me you're a great little woman "
Or, " you are the best little woman in the land "
It makes them laugh, it's cute, but I do agree, I don't hear other people saying it.

Well, I have a little princess/beautiful princess and a little man/my prince (or if feeling more extravagant, my King). And I'll be honest I really don't care what people think about it or if some people think I'm anti-feminist because of it. They both love it, and laugh when I call them that, my dd will ask me if she's my little princess because she likes to hear me say it. She is strong and independent and would fall about laughing at the thought she can't do something because she is a girl or that her value rest on traditional girly attributes.

We call our toddler Wee man. It's just an affectionate name. Do some people really have a problem with this? They need to get a life if they do.
Wee woman/ little woman doesn't exactly roll off the tongue in the same way. That is probably your answer there - not some deep psychological thing!

My DD and both my nieces were all nicknamed "wee woman" by both me and DH. I've never read anything into it other than affection tbh
My DS was known by the equivalent "wee chap" , I don't particularly like Prince/Princess but each to their own

OP you're definitely over thinking this one. We all call our little ones names that just come into our heads, it's not something to get your knickers in a twist about.

Personally I dislike the whole little prince/princess thing...especially princess! I'd hate to use it if I ever had a daughter!

Some of my friends call their daughters, little ladies. My friend called her 8 year old, her little man.

Because it's lil Man and lil Princess ....

I hate it. They're neither men nor princesses.

You are overthinking it. Some people just need to make an issue of everything just because !

Here in Ireland people often use 'wee woman' and 'wee man'.

Not sure if you are right I don't thinks so however yanbu in your dislike of the term. Little man makes me want to vomit.

Young lady is a near equivalent. Bit more grown up though.

Quite frankly I don't give a toss what anyone thinks of what I call my own child! If you don't like it, jog on!

my ds was always little dude.

dd was always little lady.

overthinking things is a waste of energy.

'Little man' makes me hide friends on Facebook.

It seems like everything has a hidden meaning these days!
I like little man, princess, princess, little lady.
I don't like little women/woman simply because it reminds me of the book.

baxter your post did make me laugh.
It annoys me when people put their childs name or partners name in their facebook name, or call themselves something like: lucyproudmumtolucusadams ( for example, i made this one up).

I don't like princess because of the pressure for girls to be pretty and passive, waiting around to be rescued.

I don't like little man as again, it's stereotyping boys into grown up male behaviour. They're not smaller men, they're children.

Everyone I know irl who uses those terms also buys totally into the pink/blue gender stereotype.

What wrong with calling children by their names?

Probably been said already, but I think it's because Little Woman is a term coined a while back and used in a pretty perjorative manner against women (the little woman at home etc)

and little man would be an insult to an adult male

so people use little lady, which was also used towards actual adult women many years ago too, and still is sometimes - you hear it in American films.

These terms are reserved for adult women. Little man is available.

That's about it.

I wouldn't use either term. "Little man" and "little lady" are both icky, and references to princes and princesses are just ridiculous.