Is this an acceptable thing to say?

[summerlovinggirl]

My DS (9, nearly 10) has come home from school today and asked what verbal diarrhoea is? I asked him why he would ask and he told me that his teaching assistant said that he was talking verbal diarrhoea when they were discussing the project that they’re all doing.
I’m not normally precious at all over things like this, but my gut reaction is it’s a really rude thing to say to a child.
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m aware my DS can talk utter crap at times but to say it to him in that matter just sits wrong with me. At patents evening the other day, full time teacher said DS was very polite and always added good ideas and opinions within class.
So am I being silly to think anything of this or has the assistant been rude.

I'm so glad I'm leaving teaching!!

I'm glad I left it.

I would never complain about something like that.

My school orchestra conductor used to tell people they had "diarrhoea of the bow arm" when they kept playing after he said to stop. It was a slightly humorous way of telling us it was time to listen, not fool around on our violins. He wasn't saying we played like shit! I can't imagine being even a little bit offended by a teacher saying this.

Ffs! It's got nothing to do with talking shit. If you're going to be so easily affronted, you need to make sure there's something to actually be affronted about.
Forget about it.

It just means talking a lot. A teacher used it about my brother in prep. Mum said just like his dad

It's quite rude. It implies you are talking too much.
Very rude thing to say to a child that was probably excited about the project.

It's a phrase we would use to describe Dd. She has an asd & is hyper-verbal.

Just means talking too much.

I swear I can't quite believe the things that parents complain about.

I think it's rude and inappropriate.
I work with children and adults on a voluntary basis and it is not an expression I would use.

It means chatterbox, I say it to my ds, don't be so precious

It means talking a lot. It's not rude! No way would I raise this with the school.

Maybe you should address your son talking so much in class that he's been told he's got verbal diarrhoea. Sounds like he needs to learn when to take a step back and let other people talk and not just give everyone his stream of consciousness. Or, verbal diarrhoea.

Ok thanks for your input, I read into it more as talking crap as that’s the context that I would use it in, but now see that for many people it’s the amount of talking.

Yes, because that's what it means. Your interpretation is incorrect.

The expression has nothing to do with talking crap. Also, the tone in which it was said is relevant. Teachers do sometimes use humour to deal with low-level naughtiness and, although it's not a formal phrase, it's hardly hugely offensive.

Unless your son is very upset I would just let it go.

I work with children and adults and I have a fluffy cat and it's an expression I think is absolutely fine.

Silly and pretentious to use it to a child. Chatterbox would have been appropriate.

Personally (granted we all have different measuring sticks granted) I think you are being a little precious.

“Pretentious”? It’s a perfectly ordinary expression and I’d be surprised is most 10 year olds (especially the chatty ones) hadn’t heard it before.

The issue is likely to be that he was talking so much that other children couldn’t be heard.

Nothing wrong with being excited or having lots of good ideas but naturally chatty kids sometimes need a gentle nudge (which is how I’d take this) that they’ve passed acceptable social boundaries.

One good tip is that if you’ve been talking for more than about two minutes without stopping, it’s probably too much.

How on earth is it pretentious?! I try not to dumb down when I'm talking to or teaching children of 9 or 10. Using a wide range if words and expressions helps them acquire a larger vocabulary and a knowledge of idiomatic language.

My teachers used this phrase every now and then when someone couldn't stop themselves talking.

Would you consider it acceptable to say in a work environment to a talkative junior colleague?

If not, then I think I child should be afforded the same courtesy, more so in fact.

I find people who think they can say whatever they like to children very difficult to tolerate - particularly if they work with them.

I use this phrase with DD (10) all the time.

Teachers, I don’t know how you do it. There must be one of these parents in every class...

I feel sorry for teachers that some parents would genuinely police their language in their own classroom to a point of ‘you shouldn’t have said this inoffensive word, this slightly more inoffensive word would’ve been better’.

It means he is wittering on (when I use it with secondary students it's iften when they are saying a lot if words but only around 50% of thrm are relevant aka waffling to hide lack of understanding).

I think it's different to being a chatterbox. A chatterbox is just someonr who is very talkative as opposed to someone wittering on.

It's very rude.