To think this is a hugely inappropriate thing to say to a young child??

[mummyloveslucy]

In the space of about 2 weeks, I've heard two adults refere to children as sexy.
One woman said to her son of about 5 "come on then sexy pants" and another woman said to a girl of about 8 "this dress would suit you're sexy little figure".
I just find it really diturbing and really sad. I just don't know what the parents are thinking. Perhaps they don't know what to say to their children so say something silly, I don't know.
Is this just me being stiff, or are these parents a bit simple?

Yanbu, inappropriate and weird

"Gorgeous, Handsome, Sexy, Cheeky" is one of our favourite little sing-songs. Its never meant in any way other than an innocent, silly little game and both my boys love it.

It certainly doesn't make me 'simple'.

Message withdrawn

I completely agree MissSunny, but the OP asked if she was being a bit stiff or if "these parents a bit simple".

my health visitor referred to DS1 as sexy once.......

I never went to visit her again and wish I'd been confident enough to complain about it at the time.

(I would now after years of MNing )

I don't think it is a word that you can use to your own DCs or even as a joke. It isn't appropriate-as you would know if you looked at the dictionary definition.

Goodness me you are all VERY uptight

It's common parlance

It doesn't mean "I want to fuck children"

You might not like it but millions of people use this sort of term all the time

I do wonder sometimes if people have actually forgotten what the word sexy actually means. My DS is almost 8 and he asks me what it means and I struggle to answer him in an age-appropriate fashion. He doesn't know anything about sex at the moment and I am happy to keep it that way for a while yet.

I find it really inappropriate to refer to any child as 'sexy'. They are not 'sexy'. They are cute, gorgeous, lovely, beautiful, handsome, adorable etc. but NOT sexy. There are so many appropriate adjectives available why use a word that is meant to describe adults?

And mums of girls - I so know what you mean about tarty clothes for girls. I have a 9 year old niece and I always buy her clothes for Xmas and birthdays and now that she has moved up from the younger girls stuff in H&M I really struggled this time. All of the stuff was awful. Finally found a corner that had lots of surfer-type shorts and cotton trousers and nice t-shirts and a couple of pretty tops and dresses. She loved all of it but my sis does say that left to her own devices she (my niece) would happily dress as a tart as that is what she sees around.

It isn't common parlance in my area-I hope that it doesn't get to be.

It isn't common parlance among the people I know either - in fact, until reading this thread, I didn't realise that people called their own children 'sexy'. Very strange and wrong.

No, it's not common parlance here either.

If I did hear someone call a child sexy I would not think for one second it meant they wanted to have sex with the child. But, I would think it was an inapproprite word to use when describing a child given that it has very adult connotations.

Nothing to do with being uptight. As Buda says, there are countless more approprite words to use.

Oh, chill out a bit, you bunch of old fogies ladies.
I reckon that "sexy" is changing in meaning, tbh, it just means 'attractive' or 'cute' nowadays, when people use it for little kids.

Sexy is not a word that i would like to hear being used around children or I would use with my son at all. The fact that a child care professional used it is outrageous!
I am not stuffy or old or a prude, but sex is for adults and being sexy is for adults too, why on earth one would want to "sex-up" a child is beyond me. I am aghast. Oh and I dont read the Daily Mail.

Yuk, Yuk, Yuk, Yuk, Yuk!

YANBU.

I once reported a review on M&S website because the poster had referred to a baby boy's outfit as "good and sexy". The poster was from overseas and I assumed they probably didn't know what it really meant although at the time I did worry I was being a bit 'outraged of Tunbridge Wells' but now think I was right to report.

M&S took out the "sexy" bit.

I am glad that I am not the only 'old fogie'.
I have never heard it used and I don't think it is changing its meaning-if it is we ought to stop it NOW.

< vom >

Can't imagine myself ever saying it but I'm surprised by quite this level of outrage. Now, the woman I overheard at the baby clinic referring to her own breasts as her son's 'girlfriend', that was weird...

Words flow & change...

hmmmm, i've never heard th eword sexy used inthis context, but then, i live in a hopelessly mc part of the south . i think the meaning of the word is changing. like the word 'gay'. it is now almost never used with its original meaning. perhaps this will happen to 'sexy' too.

'Millions' of people can call their children sexy if they want to, but I am not going to say that to mine. It sounds horrible, and it also sounds idiotic IMO.

I've never heard anyone round here call their children 'sexy' in any context. I can't see how you can equate it with cute. I've heard it used in a work context where its become another stupid buzz word by people who love buzz words, used to mean an issue is more interesting or complex, but never used to describe small children! Awful.