To be annoyed...

[Oartistic]

...by people who refer to 'my eldest' and 'my youngest' when they only have two children?

I once had this argument with DH and we looked it up in various grammar sources to prove one another wrong and both independently concluded that both elder/younger and eldest/youngest are technically acceptable grammatically even if the more usual utilisation of -est is applied when there are more than two.

Not offended by your post btw op just pointing out why I do it in case I'm one of the people making you murderous

also trying not to be a pedantic arse about 'insight' and 'incite' in response to the third reply to my OP

But there are people wandering around saying "invite" for invitation, and "electric" when they mean electricity, which throws the pernickity stuff and homophones into the shade, really.

You must be permanently pissed off.

Are you Jacob Rees Mogg?

Just say 'bigun' and 'littleun' and have done with it FFS.

Eh? How could this be offensive?

Unless you have more than 2 children, and somehow feel people with "only" 2 children are trying to falsely suggest that they, like you, have a larger family? (Ok I'm reaching, I just have no idea why this would bother you).

And yes you are BU OP if this is really worth an entire thread

Wow...I have to salute your pedantry. I thought I was bad, but this wasn't even on my radar!

Naaah Rees Mogg would call them 'Maximus' and 'Minimus' or something equally twattish.

I know plenty of people who do this, it gets the point across, YABU to be annoyed.

One of my friends also lost a child between her youngest and eldest so whilst the majority may only be referring to two DC, you don't know what the situation might be.

also trying not to be a pedantic arse about 'insight' and 'incite' in response to the third reply to my OP

Yep definitely being pedantic.

Am I allowed to say ‘yep’?

@ColeHawlins Don't get me started on those. I try to shut my eyes and ears.

@MadeleineMaxwell I can probably be even more pedantic than this. Eldest/youngest is just the one that I keep seeing on MN, which is why it irks me on a more or less daily basis.

For those who are wondering (this is not many of you, I realise), I have two children. An elder child and a younger child, if I had to distinguish between them in conversation.

You should call the police and have them arrested

I used to loath Christmas cards that said 'to x , x and family'. I'm an only child. My name has exactly as the same number of letters.

I always refer to my eldest daughter as my eldest, and my youngest as my youngest.

I have a middle daughter too. What should I call her? Hmmmmm!

If it makes you feel murderous then I guess I should probably keep out of your way.

Not at all, @Topseyt, because you're using the words correctly. My gripe is with people who don't!

I cannot get worked up about this i am afraid.

I totally get it!! I have two and I know that the correct terms are 'younger child' and 'elder child' but I feel like if I use the correct terminology I sound like a knob.

I'm so rubbish at grammar I never realised this was incorrect. I say it all the time!

If anyone would like to explain in detail why is wrong I'd be grateful

Charlie Chan - no 1 son etc...

No wonder so many mums post on these boards that they are struggling to make friends with other mums when there are women around who analyse every minutiae of every interaction they ever have and judge people for it

This.

This is precisely why I had three children: so I could use terms like eldest and youngest without annoying those around me.

DH and I had this discussion recently.
We have an eldest and youngest child but and elder/younger daughters!

Whilst I agree that it's grammatically correct what you are saying I can also accept that language is organic and ever changing even if it grates sometimes - medcine instead medicine, proply instead of properly - I try to let it go. But it's harder with some things than others!

That's what I call planning @CardsforKittens

You may be incorrect in your assumptions- someone who has suffered the loss of a child / children may still refer to them.
Of five pregnancies I have two children now. They are the eldest and youngest of those five.