AIBU to think she wasn't a young mum?

[limeandsoda93]

There's a program on BBC1 in the afternoon with Aled Jones and he retraces steps of someone's life who then helps out someone else in need. In yesterday's episode it was a lady who was diagnosed with breast cancer when her daughter was still a baby. They kept referring to her as a 'young mum' eg 'today we follow the story of a young mum', 'battling cancer as a young mum'. Then they said that she was diagnosed aged 33. AIBU to say that she wasn't a young mum? I don't think 33 is old by any means but it didn't sound right to me. What would you class as a 'young mum'?

I am 34 and consider myself a young mum. Not exceptionally so, but still.

I think also it is sometimes used to distinguish between having a young, growing family as opposed to a family of grown adults, where you are still a mum but are not currently raising young children.

I think they meant "new mum" if she had a baby.

"Young mum" tends to mean someone who is relatively young to be a mum - like a teenager or maybe someone in their v early twenties.

I was 19 when I had my first, 21 when I had my second - that's a young mum to me
I was 26 when I had my third and didn't consider myself a young mum then

33 is awfully young to have cancer though

It's obviously young to have cancer.

I don't think 33 is old by any means but it didn't sound right to me
Do you know what sounds even more not right to me is the fact that this lady has breast cancer and a young baby and all you can think about is a slightly inaccurate description of her.

She is a young woman and she is also a mum but no I wouldn't describe her as a young mum but obviously others might.

However in the overall scheme of the story it is so irrelevant it is ridiculous.

They probably mean young to have cancer.

I was a young mum in my early 20s, now I'm a mum to a second child in my 30s.

I got called a young mum recently and I was chuffed to bits!

Thinking back to it I suppose I was a bit thick not to realise they meant young and a mum it just kept whirring at the back of my head, I just thought they were a bit confused as to when women usually have children. Obviously the situation was horrible and I wasn't trying to belittle it, it was just the phrase used just made me think.

Mother of a young child would have been a more accurate description I suppose.

It's odd the way women are described - our local paper often reports (for example) about a 'grandmother being mugged' - reading on you find that the woman is 40 - much younger than me, and I have no grandchildren, but makes her sound like a pensioner.

Mother of a young child would have been a more accurate description I suppose

It's no more accurate than young mum. She is young, she is a mum, and she is a the mother of a young child.

No-one has yet said why it matters? Why women need to be categorised in this way?

I also think they meant that at 33, she was a young woman, and she was also a mum.

OP seems like you missed the point of the programme ...
She is young at 33. Giving birth at 33 would not class you as a young mum in the medical or generally accepted sense, but she is both young, and a mum.
And has cancer .

I didn't really think I'd need to write that the story itself was poignant and heartbreaking, I just thought that was a given. But I didn't at first think it in itself was relevan to the phrase 'young mum' Now I see that perhaps it was.

They don't have time to say "young woman who is a mother" over and over so young mum covers both.

Yanu splitting hairs over the description - it's cancer, it's horrific.