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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

You sweet summer child

167 replies

thinkprint · 18/05/2026 22:00

AIBU to feel absolutely fucking murderous when people say this?

OP posts:
thinkprint · Yesterday 17:40

ObelixtheGaul · 19/05/2026 19:29

I hadn't heard this phrase from anywhere but the internet. Haven't seen Game of Thrones. Google reveals there's a debate over it, plenty of forums coming up with the same discussion. The Google overview agrees with you that the phrase in its sarcastic usage originates from GoT Fandom taking the quote from the book.

However, if I might suggest, there is a flaw in your logic, which doesn't mean you are wrong, it's just a note of caution.

I have read a lot. But there are phrases from my youth that don't appear in literature and Google wouldn't give you literary references. It is possible to find the phrase, for example, 'itchy chin', meaning, 'Liar', on the internet, because it was a popular phrase amongst schoolchildren in the 80s, but there are no literary references at all. Basically, nobody has used it in a novel. Or any of the variants, Jimmy Hill, itchy beard, etc.

Now you might say, 'Oh, but it appears on the internet. Well, it's not unreasonable that it would, because it was at it's peak in the late 70s/ 80's/90's. So the generation, then, that has the most prominent nostalgia post presence on the internet. The further back you go, the harder it is to find phrases other than the most well known.

Not every saying/phrase makes it into print, or even on TV. I mean, when did you hear a kid say, 'itchy chin' on any UK TV show even of the time, never mind now. I was born in the early 70s, it's part of my childhood, it wasn't region- specific, but they didn't use it on Grange Hill, Byker Grove, or any of the contemporary dramas.

So, the only reason that phrase exists on the internet is because someone posted about it as a memory at some point. And the primary reason they'd have done that is the reason I first looked it up. To find out why we said it, because it isn't obvious why that term would be used in that context.

'Oh, you sweet summer child' isn't necessarily a phrase people would have shared on the net in a 'why did my Nan say this' type of way, because it's self-explanatory, really.

I suspect there's a whole host of sayings we really did hear that don't appear in books or on the internet. Because there's no reason for them to. They don't stand out in our minds enough to post about them, and authors found they weren't effective phrases to use in novels.

Still doesn't mean you are wrong, but believe it or not, not everything we heard our grandparents say, or even that we remember saying, is going to appear on the net or a novel.

This is very true.

I can’t see how sweet summer child would make any sense outside of GoT though. No one in real life lives in a place where summers can last years of a childhood before winter begins. But good points well made!

OP posts:
SpecialAgentMaggieBell · Yesterday 17:53

thinkprint · 18/05/2026 22:06

It’s not though. They say it for anything.

’I think my wisteria will come out nice this year’.

’Ah you sweet summer child’.

’My baby has a placid, calm nature so I’m not finding the terrible twos that bad’.

’Ah you sweet summer child’.

It is so patronising and condescending and FROM A TV SHOW.

Do you never use TV show quotes in everyday life? Confused

NewGoldFox · Yesterday 17:56

thinkprint · 18/05/2026 22:13

No, it hasn’t.

Ah sweet summer child, indeed it has been used many times afore.

ObelixtheGaul · Yesterday 17:57

SpecialAgentMaggieBell · Yesterday 17:53

Do you never use TV show quotes in everyday life? Confused

That would be a fun thread. 'What TV quotes do you find yourself using'.

Butchyrestingface · Yesterday 17:58

thinkprint · 18/05/2026 22:13

No, it hasn’t.

It absolutely has!

NotMajorTom · Yesterday 18:10

thinkprint · Yesterday 17:35

Right well I meant the any of the numerous results showing the saying was in regular use, but you obviously have comprehension problems.

I’m not the one conflating “popularised” and “created”, nor am I dismissing actual first hand evidence.

Springtimeinsunshine · Yesterday 18:19

No one in real life lives in a place where summers can last years of a childhood before winter begins.

Oh dear...

UniquePinkSwan · Yesterday 18:24

It’s definitely been around for years. My gran used to say it where I grew up in Scotland and she’s been dead around 30 years now

BeanMeUp · Yesterday 18:25

@thinkprint have a read the translated works of Fredrika Bremer (late 1800s).

The term used to be used in poetry as a reference to innocence, and after GoT it became a more sarcastic reference to naivety. But GoT didn't invent the phrase.

Tigerbalmshark · Yesterday 18:39

thinkprint · Yesterday 17:40

This is very true.

I can’t see how sweet summer child would make any sense outside of GoT though. No one in real life lives in a place where summers can last years of a childhood before winter begins. But good points well made!

Edited

People don’t actually: come down in the last shower, or any shower at all, or wash in on a tide; are never actually green-coloured; and no adult was literally born yesterday.

These things are metaphors.

Tigerbalmshark · Yesterday 18:58

ObelixtheGaul · 19/05/2026 19:29

I hadn't heard this phrase from anywhere but the internet. Haven't seen Game of Thrones. Google reveals there's a debate over it, plenty of forums coming up with the same discussion. The Google overview agrees with you that the phrase in its sarcastic usage originates from GoT Fandom taking the quote from the book.

However, if I might suggest, there is a flaw in your logic, which doesn't mean you are wrong, it's just a note of caution.

I have read a lot. But there are phrases from my youth that don't appear in literature and Google wouldn't give you literary references. It is possible to find the phrase, for example, 'itchy chin', meaning, 'Liar', on the internet, because it was a popular phrase amongst schoolchildren in the 80s, but there are no literary references at all. Basically, nobody has used it in a novel. Or any of the variants, Jimmy Hill, itchy beard, etc.

Now you might say, 'Oh, but it appears on the internet. Well, it's not unreasonable that it would, because it was at it's peak in the late 70s/ 80's/90's. So the generation, then, that has the most prominent nostalgia post presence on the internet. The further back you go, the harder it is to find phrases other than the most well known.

Not every saying/phrase makes it into print, or even on TV. I mean, when did you hear a kid say, 'itchy chin' on any UK TV show even of the time, never mind now. I was born in the early 70s, it's part of my childhood, it wasn't region- specific, but they didn't use it on Grange Hill, Byker Grove, or any of the contemporary dramas.

So, the only reason that phrase exists on the internet is because someone posted about it as a memory at some point. And the primary reason they'd have done that is the reason I first looked it up. To find out why we said it, because it isn't obvious why that term would be used in that context.

'Oh, you sweet summer child' isn't necessarily a phrase people would have shared on the net in a 'why did my Nan say this' type of way, because it's self-explanatory, really.

I suspect there's a whole host of sayings we really did hear that don't appear in books or on the internet. Because there's no reason for them to. They don't stand out in our minds enough to post about them, and authors found they weren't effective phrases to use in novels.

Still doesn't mean you are wrong, but believe it or not, not everything we heard our grandparents say, or even that we remember saying, is going to appear on the net or a novel.

I have an example actually - when a was in primary school, in Sussex in the 80s, we used the phrase “making secrets” to mean “bitching about somebody behind their back”. So you might tell Jessica that you and Nicola were making secrets about her (telling the victim beforehand was an important part of it). Then you and Nicola would go into a corner of the playground together and whisper to each other while Jessica hopefully cried.

Absolutely no record of it on the internet - you just get links to anti-child abuse resources about children not being asked to keep secrets from adults.

I remember this because I was a juror on a CSA court case in my early 20s, and a large part of the defence case rested on the two victims saying they were “making secrets” about the accused family friend before telling their mum. The defence claimed the phrase meant “making up secrets” when it doesn’t at all, and it’s actually perfectly understandable that two victims of CSA might want to discuss what to do about it together.

I did obviously write a note explaining it was a common phrase locally and what it meant, but none of the older jurors, or the legal teams who presumably were not local, knew what it meant at all.

I could absolutely put it in my next Netflix blockbuster and claim credit for inventing it, and nobody would be able to prove otherwise.

ObelixtheGaul · Yesterday 19:06

Tigerbalmshark · Yesterday 18:58

I have an example actually - when a was in primary school, in Sussex in the 80s, we used the phrase “making secrets” to mean “bitching about somebody behind their back”. So you might tell Jessica that you and Nicola were making secrets about her (telling the victim beforehand was an important part of it). Then you and Nicola would go into a corner of the playground together and whisper to each other while Jessica hopefully cried.

Absolutely no record of it on the internet - you just get links to anti-child abuse resources about children not being asked to keep secrets from adults.

I remember this because I was a juror on a CSA court case in my early 20s, and a large part of the defence case rested on the two victims saying they were “making secrets” about the accused family friend before telling their mum. The defence claimed the phrase meant “making up secrets” when it doesn’t at all, and it’s actually perfectly understandable that two victims of CSA might want to discuss what to do about it together.

I did obviously write a note explaining it was a common phrase locally and what it meant, but none of the older jurors, or the legal teams who presumably were not local, knew what it meant at all.

I could absolutely put it in my next Netflix blockbuster and claim credit for inventing it, and nobody would be able to prove otherwise.

Yes, I would guess there's a fair few of these more local expressions few other people know about.

ObelixtheGaul · Yesterday 19:11

thinkprint · Yesterday 17:40

This is very true.

I can’t see how sweet summer child would make any sense outside of GoT though. No one in real life lives in a place where summers can last years of a childhood before winter begins. But good points well made!

Edited

Martin might conceivably have taken inspiration from the phrase as referenced in poetry, meaning 'innocence' in the creation of his world where there were years of summer before winter.
It's a play on the concept of the four seasons representing the phases of a human's life...which certainly wasn't dreamed up by Martin, though his interpretation is a creative take.

Tigerbalmshark · Yesterday 19:41

ObelixtheGaul · Yesterday 19:06

Yes, I would guess there's a fair few of these more local expressions few other people know about.

It was interesting because it was a good 15+ years since I’d last heard it, and in a completely different town 25 miles away. But still obviously going strong.

dannyufcfan · Yesterday 23:56

Looked into it some more, today ( for only about 15 mins, I don't have that much free time lol) and still convinced op is right and this didn't exist in the way people use it now before GOT.

This is a clear mandela effect in action, imo.

Although, I did appreciate @ObelixtheGaul contribution, who has gave me some pause.

Much more than the posters quoting a poem from 120 years ago or whatever.

takealettermsjones · Today 00:17

OP: the sky is green
50 posters: no, it's blue
OP: ah, behold this bizarre phenomenon wherein everyone's memories are in fact wrong, fascinating

Flippertigibbets · Today 00:56

God this is reminding me of when my friend insisted that she remembered people using the phrase “this is like Groundhog Day” in the 70s 🤦🏼‍♀️

Anyway, an interesting read all round. I’m enjoying everyone arguing about this. I’m sure it was a phrase before GoT but I’ve nothing to prove it to OP so…

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