The Childfree, Parents and “It”.

Something I’ve noticed that’s becoming prevalent across the interwebs and the world is the changing of word definitions. The unrelenting attacks that come when you dare to use a word that parents have deemed to mean something else, the way it’s supposed to be used is quite frankly, ridiculous.

When I post on forums and blogs and I don’t know the gender of a kid I use “it” in place of “he” or “she”. I don’t get close enough to infants or pay enough attention to very small kids to figure out if they’re a boy or girl. If I can hear a kid screaming at the top of it’s lungs I’m most certainly not going to hunt it down and figure out what gender it is. I’m going to run the other way. I know of many other childfree that use “it” the same way.

The angst that parents display at having their precious darlings called “it” is quite funny really. They inevitably whine about how their child is not an inanimate object so is not an it. Well, yes, yes it is an it. Because I don’t know the gender! And I don’t care!

According to Merriam Webster, one of the many definitions of it is:

a person or animal whose sex is unknown or disregarded ,

1. Unknown – means I just plain don’t know.
2. Disregarded – means I just plain don’t CARE.

So, parents, seriously. Just chill. Your darlings will not suffer severe psychological damage because some stranger they never have and never will meet has called them an it on the internet.