BBC news using the phrase "broken home"

[IsitaHatOrACat]

Really? Really? Whilst I'm not overly interested to know about this man's drug fuelled years, the description of him coming from a "broken home" has infuriated me.
As a single parent to a 15 year old, I can confirm that there us nothing whatsoever "broken" about our home or small family.
I really thought we had moved on from this type of shaming of single parent families
Seriously BBC, do better.

BBC News - Heavy hangs the crown - sadness at Wiggins' troubles
www.bbc.com/sport/cycling/articles/c23mv42m2lmo

You’re obviously insecure about it and triggered, or you wouldn’t have written the post. The term is correct even if you don’t like it. It is what it is. Get on with your life and do your best.

So what should she do - have the kids in her care 24/7 because they miss their mum? While they are with their other parent? The father presumably asked for 50/50 and now berates her for having hobbies? If this family are real and not pulled out of your arse that is a truly screwed up way of looking at the situation.

Journalists should absolutely stop using language which causes offence.

No. Journalists should use accurate language. Prioritising 'not causing offence' is a slippery slope that ends up with male rapists described with female pronouns.

And 'broken home' is not accurate!

@ByDenimCriticwould you say the same to someone who was offended by the word ‘Cis gender’ or ‘scrounger’ or ‘TERF’?? Language matters, we are the single parents, we get to define ourselves. Our homes are not broken. If Bradley Wiggins’s said he felt like he came from a broken home, that would be his opinion of his own childhood. Same as anyone, we can define ourselves. ‘Broken home’ isn’t a good description as it sounds fragmented, whilst the remaining family unit could be stronger or more united after the ‘break’. It also suggests only one family home whilst we know that many children have two happy homes, or three or four. They could have bedrooms at grandparents or uncles, or homes in other countries.

This.

I’d feed back if you feel strongly, and it will be changed I’d say. Remember sports journalists rarely write about things like this so and have a less formal style so I can see how it crept in.

It is a broken home - a child wants a mum and a dad. I know it must be upsetting, but it is just stating facts.

@Snowdrop4but the alternative would be your parents staying married and you continuing to witness abuse right? I’m really sorry but in no scenario would you have had a better childhood unless your parents did a lot of work on themselves. Them staying in a marriage would not have been the solution, based on the statement you have written. Unhappy people and people in dysfunctional relationships have children. That’s just the facts, the solution is not for them to stay married, the solution is for them to work on themselves and their relationship before having children.

Yes because everyone has the right to be offended. But nothing more.

@Hwibut many many children have both a mum and a dad who are involved and committed after a divorce or break up.

Personally, I think they will have used terms that the subject of the article uses. So Bradley Wiggins may well consider himself as being from a broken home, raised in poverty. I doubt that came from anyone but him tbh.

@Englishsummerblues you use the term break up, that’s the point isn’t it. The original family unit has broken up, hence a broken home

If that's the case then journalistic style guides state they should be clear it's the subject's own language and not theirs

Noooooo. This phrase needs relegating to the past in the same way that "bastard child" and "fallen woman" has been. See also: spastic, mongol, retard, invalid etc.
Language matters and affects personal and societal views and opinions.

To everyone thinking that I'm "offended" and taking this personally. This is not the issue. It's about the wider influence of language on stereotypes/stigma/prejudice. I think this outdated phrase needs debating *and moved out of use)

its a very poor turn of phrase . It has stigma attached to it however you look at it.
‘Difficult upbringing’ would have covered it .

Completely agree . See also ‘barren’ , ‘spinster’ etc all are loaded words which have stigma and judgment attached to them

I've seen a lot of women on MN over the years who have been reluctant to leave a clearly abusive DP because they "don't want their kids to come from a broken home." It's a highly stigmatising phrase that does real harm, IMO.

Absolutely, a child of divorced parents lives in a broken home too. Nothing to do with being a single parent ab initio - incomplete family is a broken family.

If you want to normalise the abnormal, then by all means, let us play around with the language - but know it is a dangerous game, because it will apply not only to broken homes - blink and vile scum that are paedos will become 'minor attracted individuals'.

It is not the words we need to change, it is our attitudes that need changing - an invalid will not be cured of invalidity (my dad) if we stop calling him an invalid. Shall we also rename 'Les Invalides'? And wonderful books for social workers 'The mentally retarded child at home', 'Communicating with normal and retarded children', 'The education and training of the mentally retarded' are all available on sale for practitioners of psychology and education.

I think you may be misinterpreting ‘broken home’ as ‘single parent household’, when it’s referencing the fact that: his bio dad abandoned him at 2, his mother moved country, lived at home with her parents briefly before finding more stable accommodation, had another relationship where a half brother was born, only for that surrogate father to also leave when he was a teen, oh and moved homes again several times during that period.

I would say his ‘dysfunctional’ household and the lack of stability in both parental relationships and living arrangements is what was being referenced - and yes, I think ‘broken home’ seems appropriate here.

Then inaccurate language should be the complaint.

The term is derogatory and can perpetuate stereotypes and prevent people leaving abusive relationships. If thus is "triggering" it should be! I'm fine thanks and getting on my life! Many others aren't. This is about them.

But it’s not offensive to all. Many of us do view situations where the child isn’t raised by two stable parents as indeed “broken.”

There are myriad scholarly and scientific studies documenting that outcomes are poorer on many levels for people not raised in two-parent homes.

Denying reality by attempting to censor language is futile.

YABU @IsitaHatOrACat