To really detest the term 'little man' for a baby/little boy

[Mimicat44]

It just seems that everyone is using this term now and it annoys me - they're not a little man, they're a baby or a little boy! Why impose any connotation of being a 'man' already on a tiny child, just let them be a child! I don't hear 'little woman' with reference to a baby girl so why the keenness to have it the other way round?! Is this some subconscious way of encouraging little boys to be 'manly' or stereotypically masculine or am I completely overreacting and it's just a cute term. I am prepared to accept that maybe I am Anyway, anyone else got any terms/sayings they find (potentially) unreasonably annoying?

it seems like calling a boy a little man is encouraging manliness and calling a girl a little lady is encouraging stereotypical 'ladylike' qualities

Both are exactly the same. Why do you think "manliness" is any less of a stereotype than lady like qualities?

Haha I hated it before I had my son and now I use it all the time...it just suits him...he doesn't have much baby pudge and has so much focus and seems older than he is, a little man is just what he is!

I wouldn't get worjed up about it as guess it will be stopped at some point for being transphobic.

It's twee and it's annoying but you're massively overthinking it.

Most people I know just say these things because they think they're cute. That's about as far as it goes.

And I don't know why you think 'little man' and 'little lady', are any different at all.

"it seems like calling a boy a little man is encouraging manliness and calling a girl a little lady is encouraging stereotypical 'ladylike' qualities

Both are exactly the same. Why do you think "manliness" is any less of a stereotype than lady like qualities?"

Soupdragon you're missing my point but maybe I didn't make it very well, I'm saying they are the same thing in that they're both encouraging stereotypical characteristics - 'manliness' and being 'ladylike' which have nothing to do with being a man or a woman in themselves.

Yes, I hate it as well as 'prince' and 'princess'

I really don't like it either which was a bit awkward because that's what DH used to call the boys. I kept quiet. it's a bit illogical not to like it bet it grates on me every time,

I dislike little lady or princess too but don't mind other NN like Sweetpea or Chickkies or Sweetypies - all of which are a bit cringe'y too.

I hate little man and princess, too. Makes me think of Katie Price.

OP I agree, it also makes me cringe and for the same reasons. It's a baby, not an adult. For the same reason I find it creepy when ppl talk about their babies/toddlers having "girlfriends" or "boyfriends", in reference to other children of same age. Let children be children.

Alisvolatpropiis I have heard people call their kids sexy too. Wth is that about. That really pisses me off and I find it weird

It doesn't bother me in the slightest. Little fella, little man, young man, young lady, little woman. Meh, they're all polite and affectionate.

I dislike prince and princess too. One of my fiends always refers to my DC as a princess. She is more like a frog with all her kicking. I call her my little froggy

YANBU. It makes my skin crawl.

YANBU. I hate it. And "little princess too"

Also when they're in the womb and people are like "ooh she's gonna be a dancer with those kicking legs" or "ooh he's gonna be a footballer" ugh

Yabu, people can call there children whatever they want.

I often call ds (9 months) mummy's little man, mummy's little cool dude. Our DD isn't due until August and already is referred to as our little princess.

Yes sepa that is also vile, i don't like little man or little princess either though I don't know why really.

Worse is an old friend of ds's who posted on FB that he is gong to have a "mini me" FGS it's a baby it will be itself not a little him. AAAaah

I'm saying they are the same thing

but you said that they weren't

Sepa, ha, little froggy... Yeah I'm all for referring to children as various creatures/inanimate objects. They're going to spend the majority of their life being referred to as adults so why start now. Let's be a bit more imaginative!

I call mine little man because I like it. Little prince or princess is criminal.

I hate it. I think it's because it projects (to my mind) ideas of masculinity and "toughness" on a little baby, in a way that no one really does with girls. Each to his own but it puts my teeth on edge.

Soupdragon you're missing my point but maybe I didn't make it very well, I'm saying they are the same thing in that they're both encouraging stereotypical characteristics - 'manliness' and being 'ladylike' which have nothing to do with being a man or a woman in themselves.

So, by your reckoning people calling their sons little man will encourage them to grow into a manly man, probably doing a manual labour job, knowing his way around a drill, can take the bin out, go down the pub with his mates after work for a few pints

I get you don't like it, just don't call your own children it and leave others to do whatever they want. I think you are massively over thinking in. Not sure I could sit and seethe about this for long enough to start a thread about it. I'd rather hear little man/Little lady a million times over than other things I've heard children being called.

I hate it passionately. We are in London so it's more of a little maaayan. It's so generic and lazy as a nickname, I love a good pet name that's come from the child's mannerisms and individuality.

Equally unimaginative are little lady, little miss, missy, babe etc. They are all of the same ilk.

"Lil Man", "Hubby", and "Hubs" all make me irrationally irritated!

I don't love little man. L'il man gives me the actual rage. But that all pales into significance before 'sexy l'il man'. Also hate hate hate princess or prince.

But I'm Scottish and we use 'wee man' all the time (and in a variety of situations) and that's fine.

There's nowt as queer as folk after all

"Come here, little man!"

25 children start bolting toward you.