Am I being a snowflake about this - name of a nursery that is similar to something I find offensive ?

[Putoffalot]

AIBU to not want to send my child (of a mixed heritage) to a childminder with a name that is very similar to something offensive (GW). It’s come up when searching and is the closest to my work but I can’t even contemplate contacting them as it’s too close to the name of an offensive item ?

Same! I'm also old and have a pretty broad vocabulary and have never heard that word in my life - which is why I couldn't figure it out to begin with!

I'm not sure I could tell people, "my child goes to Pollywogs"?!

All the little closet racists always come crawling out in these posts….

YANBU, there are lots of nice name options for a nursery school, no need to make people think of something negative.

I get you op. I don't like it. It makes me uncomfortable. I'd not use them. I'd never herd that term for a tadpole before today but I can't understand why they wouldn't just call it tadpoles if that's the thought process? I'd be worried people thought I was a racist sending my kids there 🙈

That's completely and utterly different. Plus it's pronounced, "woag"!!

She was asking if she was being unreasonable......she was asking people whether they thought she was being unreasonable. Don't be a twat.

Fwiw, I have a disability. I'm in a wheelchair and have chosen not to buy from a company that names their products things that make light of disability related insults.

I'd put this in a similar sort of bracket. They should be able to see that they are alienating a lot of their potential clients.

This doesn’t rhyme with an offensive word, it is made up with the offensive word in full.

Moron is the word for carrot in Welsh. I tend to call people Welsh carrots…

I’m American. I’m not even sure what GW stands for or what could be similar to pollywogs that would be offensive. It’s a really common name for nurseries or for classrooms within nurseries. You will also see things like
Guppies, caterpillars, ducklings. Babies and baby animals go hand-in-hand.

I don't think you are. It's a horrible name actually.

I am white and I think the name shows very poor cultural awareness on the part of the owner or manager. Why on earth would you name a business something that sounds so similar to a racist slur? It would make me wonder what kind of people ran it.

Think "golly" and the last syllable of Polli-place.

What? Why is Tigger racist?

A while ago on MN someone said that they were making a formal complaint about a nursery worker or reception teacher who had called her little boy a cheeky monkey, which she was sure was a racist insult.

It's a not-uncommon saying around here, such that a local soft play and a chain of nurseries
TLDR: sometimes offence or is caused accidentally, but equally, just because someone feels offended doesn't mean that their reaction is necessarily reasonable.

Why are people going on about rhyming? They're missing the point. The second half of Pollywogs is an actual racial slur - not a word that rhymes with a slur.

It IS an odd choice and I can't believe the earlier poster who said loads of nurseries have that name. I've never ever heard of a nursery or childminder with that name - tadpoles yes but not Pollywogs.

In the UK it’s not common. Wog is a hugely offensive racial slur, pollywog is not far enough away that it didn’t strike me as ‘off’.

You’re not being a snowflake OP and your feelings are valid. I think it’s a really odd choice of name for a nursery (and I’ve only ever known them as tadpoles).

There’s a saying, “Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity” and while
I don’t necessarily agree that this is even a stupid name for a nursery, it seems extremely aggressive (and a tiring way to go through life) to assume active racism as a starting point here.

I’m a white woman and I wouldn’t be comfortable sending my child to a nursery with that name. I find the fact the ending is the same as an unacceptable word inappropriate. It’s not just that the ending is the same either, the fact that the first part of both words rhymes makes the word very similar to GW.

That is a fucking ridiculous assumption/conclusion to leap to.

I guess you also think that all the nurseries that contain the word 'monkeys' is also a racist slur and a deliberately racist action on the part of the owner?

I think it much much more likely the owner has absolutely no fucking idea this could be offensive to someone, and named it this as a/there already were businesses called 'little tadpoles' etc and b/ perhaps after fond memories of Grandma taking them out looking for polliwogs in the local pond.

I'm not actually saying its an appropriate word to use for a business name, but I also don't think actively looking for and determining something a deliberate act of racism where there is zero evidence of such, is helpful either.

If we eradicate all the words that have been used as a racist slur or offensive term somewhere in the world, we're likely to run out of words, but also and more importantly, we actually create a divide by making people afraid to speak to/interact with one another.

Look up Bertha Upton

I don't think it matters if you are unreasonable. You are uncomfortable so don't use that nursery.

If you wanted to take action over it yes you would be unreasonable. Lots of childcare settings are named for things like a tadpole caterpillar seedling etc all young things in their life cycle like the children they care for. So I do think it's unreasonable if you wanted something done about it.

That said the person who came up with that name should have thought it through better and chosen differently in my opinion. It's wrong to have to avoid perfectly reasonable words in case they cause offence but sticking it up on a big sign and naming your business something many people who don't know the word will suspect is racist is a stupid decision

Are you white?

I'm very much not being a twat.

(I didn't ask you if I was being one either. Neither did the OP.)

I don't think you are being unreasonable to be uncomfortable. I have a pretty wide vocab and had never heard this word, so I'd worry that the similarity would strike others too whenever I mentioned it.

If you are in a part of the country where the word is more normal (even if you didn't know it), then that's probably not an issue.

I don't should stop you sending your children there, ultimately. It seems pretty unlikely that it is intentional. And the discomfort of the name will probably wear off quickly and just become normal, but the inconvenient commute won't wear off.