To be offended by this word in a children's play?

[amammabear]

My kids are currently taking part in Elf the musical, and one of the lines has Buddy the Elf singing "making toys is so fantastic that I shake until I'm spastic!".

Now I'm really struggling with this, I have a condition that causes muscles spasms myself (developed as an adult) but I grew up under the impression that "spastic" isn't considered appropriate any more. Before I raise it with the theatre group, I wanted to know what others think.

My children aren't singing it, only Buddy, but my parents agree with me that it's not appropriate and my Mum thought that if even one person in the audience is offended, it could be harmful to the groups reputation. So, AIBU?

Hey OP what happened with this in the end? Did they remove the word?

Im trying to figure out what the R word is.

What R word?

"retard" as in mental retardation, I imagine is the R word.

Another one of those fine in a medical context, but not otherwise words.

If it isn't that, then I too am intrigued

Especially since THAT word had been said in this forum.

My own dc was in n this musical op. We had the cd of the music on loop in the car and I was rather dubious about this particular line. However, when we went to see the performance it had been changed. I recall that it was only sung by one member of the cast, so unless your own dc has the star part of Buddy the Elf, I wouldn't worry about it too much.

Retard (as a noun) is considered offensive in the US. The word retarded is still used by some in medical and related contexts, but it is fast becoming unacceptable.