Friday, July 22, 2011

a little look at language

For whatever reason, it's funny to me that "we" still call our grown children "children." (The first use of quotations marks there is because I don't yet have a child who is 18+.) Why don't we call them our "adults"? As in, "Oh, yes, my adult is moving into her first place on her own next week." Hmm.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's because one definition of "child" is a son or daughter, and because while are parents are living, we are always a son or daughter, we are consequently also a child.

I guess it's also because it would be a bit odd, and cold, to say, "My immediate descendent is buying a house."

v said...

Um, yeah. I think I might have lost part of my brain somewhere along the way. Also, this is exactly why (especially when I'm working on partial brain function) I look up words I "know."

And, yes, as long as I'm admitting things here, I've heard the phrase "adult child" before.

Oy.

The Furie Queene said...

I think I'm going to start referring to W as my immediate descendent, although I think it's a tad morbid, as it implicitly refers to my inevitable demise.

Oh, and in my above post, the first "are" should be "our." Oy, indeed. :D

v said...

I totally didn't catch that "are." :)

And, I suppose I can now confess that I often refer to Pic as Child. I mean as a term of endearment, although I know that it'd probably freak some others out to hear me refer to her as such. Not sure why I do this.

Also, I think it'd be funny if W grew to refer to you as her immediate ancestor.