to think teacher calling kids this is inappropriate?

[OWetOne]

My child(9) told me their teacher will call a child a wet wipe if the child is 'being a coward' (how my child explained it). My child wasn't offended and told me about it because they thought it was funny, but they obviously have never heard it being used before. I wouldn't want my child calling someone else a wet wipe.

Am I being a wet wipe? Or am I right to think this is inappropriate?

I wouldn't be particularly worked up about this. As a PP said, it's just mild teasing and hardly going to scar a child for life. While we don't encourage our kids to name-call, the reality is kids will say all kinds of things to each other and it's good to teach your kids to be resilient (and to develop a few pithy comebacks of their own!)

Absolutely. I'm much older and have brought up several children, so I'm toughened to this sort of thing. It's good for kids to toughen up as well, the whole world is not going to pander to their sensibilities I'm afraid.

I'm not familiar with the expression at all so can't comment. However OP doesn't know tone or context. To complain about something you have no knowledge of seems to be a bit extreme. Why not ask the teacher in a friendly way about what the expression means in the context and how it's used, ask for examples. If it were me I'd ask other parents first. Going above the teacher is wrong IMO. It may be that the teacher found the only way to get the kids to engage is to gently tease. Maybe the alternative is shouting or disengaging entirely which no doubt will bring in more complaints.

I couldn't get too bothered by this. It's not perfectly polite, but a bit of friendly banter from a good teacher is fairly harmless, as long as no child is feeling hurt or bullied by it. There can be benefits overall to teachers interacting with kids in a relaxed, natural way.

If the children weren’t upset by it then I wouldn’t be either.

This.

Depends on the context for me. Genuine, light hearted ribbing? Fine. Used as a dismissive response to a complaint of bullying etc? Not fine.

I had a friend who is a secondary school deputy. She said 'we just use sarcasm to control and belittle' and I thought... teachers are not what they used to be.

I agree. Context is all.

I knew a brilliant secondary teacher once with lots of charisma. He jokily rebelled against the macho sport culture of the school by having an (imaginary)’Wimps’ Club’ in which he gave students brownie points for nerdy activities and achievements but (again, jokingly) deducted points if anyone admitted to going skiing or scoring goals in football. It was all very lighthearted and was in no way seriously diminishing the sporty kids’ success.

But if taken out of context I can see how this might be misunderstood!

Yeah, they used to hit the kids…

It depends on the circumstances. In a scenario where a teenager says they don't want to go out in the drizzle, I can imagine teachers saying it good humouredly without it being an issue. Being named a wet wipe for not wanting to read an essay aloud in assembly would be very mean.

Wouldn't bother me, esp at secondary. It's very mild, I mean come on!!

Kids do sometimes behave like a wet wipe and it needs calling out ... not genuine proper fear, but sometimes they fanny about all sorts of shite and I don't think it helps to pander to it too much. Not everything needs a deep meaningful discussion about feelings.

Ugh! Teachers who resort to childish name calling really need to go back to school!

Baha I'd love to get this as a complaint. Get over yourself. No wonder kids are so precious nowadays.

There's a line between a bit of gentle ribbing and full on bullying. This falls into the former category. As the kids would say.... It's not that deep.

name calling 😂

how do you react when something actually happens?

Reason 1001 why I wouldn't be a teacher or encourage my dc to teach. Your job as a parent is to prepare your child for the world, taking offence at a teacher calling kids wet wipe is ridiculous.

I am reminded of the time a pupil entered a colleague's classroom late, moaning "my leg's broken" (this was clearly huge exaggeration). She told him "you'd better sit down quickly, before I break the other one", which he took in good part. A couple of days later, following a complaint from a different child's parent, senior management investigated her threat of violence. Fortunately one of the witnesses explained the concept of a joke to them.

I cannot believe how many people on this thread are, in fact, colossal wet wipes over children being called wet wipes.

On the scale of mockery it's basically equivalent to saying 'Come on, slow-coach!' to a child dawdling behind the others on a school trip, or calling a kid 'chatterbox' for talking in class all time. Total non-issue and completely harmless.

As the late Mark E Smith used to say: 'God help us if there's a war.'

Surely wet wipe is akin to calling someone toilet paper?

I've only ever used wet wipes to wipe sticky hands or take my makeup off...

sadly, if you had kids in primary school, you would be less surprised. It's frightening what bored mums manage to be offended by

No but there's very little else left to use without someone shouting 'abuse'
Once kids realise they have all the power you're in trouble. Look at the number of threads on here about rebellious teens who just get violent when they don't get their own way.

Ffs.

Really you can't manage without calling kids 'wet wipes'. I think that's grim and I work in a school. Do you really think it's ok to single out a 'cowardly' child? DS is dyspraxic and really struggled with sports, I would be fuming if a teacher was calling him a wet wipe in front the class at 9 or 14 because he was struggling, it's completely humiliating.

You don't make kids stronger and more resilient by humiliating them in front of other kids, I'm always amazed at how many people on here think that is the case. You do that by building self esteem and making kids feel safe. Even teachers don't have a clue by the seems of it!

I don't know what has throwing chairs and setting fire to the carpet got to do with anything. No one is calling a child a wet wipe because they're fighting and swearing at the teacher. Honestly you're just making yourself sound like a shit teacher.

This isn't a class of 14 year olds that it's being called to as a whole for a bit of silly banter. This is a 9 year old being singled out for supposedly being a 'coward'.

Wow you really think humiliation is the answer? How is calling someone a wet wipe going to help anything? We're not even talking about rebellious teens we're talking about a 9 year old.

I'd not be worried by this. Just a funny phrase used instead of making a massive deal of something