Yeah, dear whatever is irritating. Who says “my dear husband” in real life either, anyway.
I remember reading that people have studied how we raise our boy and girl children. Like with boys, there’s a lot of emphasis on them being more independent–even when they’re babies, calling them “little man” or telling them to be brave, and more coddling of girls, again, even at the infant level.
I call my kid “the Princess” because she thinks she rules the household. I am aware of the nickname’s inherent implications of expected female behavior, but that’s not why I call her that. I also call her “Buddy,” because that’s what her father calls her from the day she was born - she is his “best buddy” and hopefully always will be.
My nickname for my nephew is “big guy” (kind of ironic as he is skinny but getting tall), but I also call him “dude.”
A black friend with two sons had an article on her refrigerator which stated that black male children shouldn’t be called “boys”, because of the former use of the word 'boy" to talk to/about black men. Basically this article stated you’d start destroying your “man-child’s” sense of being a strong black man if you ever referred to him as “boy”. I think it’s crap.
StG
I dunno, my boy was called “little man” off and on (and still is occasionally; he’s 10 now) mostly by his mother as I think an ironic/silly nickname, no deeper meaning intended. But he also had a lot of nicknames over the years: Babaloo, Mister Man, Pickles (a word which he thought was the most hilarious sound ever when he was about 1, so the name stuck, but he says only I can use it), and a huge number of silly diminutives of his given name. Parents, and almost always the kids find this stuff amusing, and I think its silly to be offended or worried about it.
“Little Man” is less likely to be bad for his (eventual) self-esteem than some of our son’s other nicknames. “Mom! I’m fifteen! Stop calling me Kitten/Snuggles/Mr. Squish, dammit!”
My boss and her husband started calling their first born son, “The Kid” - T.K. for short, from the day he was born.
It stuck.
To this day he is known as T.K. to his family and friends.
Called my son “the Boy” or “the boy child” from the day he was born. (Didn’t know the gender any earlier!) Hasn’t caused him any long term ill effects that I can see, although he’s not black and apparently that has something to do with the terrible psychological damage that’s possible.:rolleyes:(He’s almost 30 and about to be a parent himself) I sometimes refer to small male children as “little man” or “little dude” because I don’t know their name and they object to “little boy” ( I am NOT a little boy, I’m a BIG boy.)
As an aside, we call his sister “the Girl” - gotta keep the damage equitable!
I’ve been known to call my pets “little man,” but I don’t think I’ve ever used it on a kid. I used to call my nephew Tough Guy, but I’ve been more inventive with most of my friends’ kids. (Yoda, Scooter, Snotface, etc. And yes, I stopped calling him Snotface long before he understood the word.)
I don’t find “little man” annoying, but I think I might change my mind if it was applied to somebody who couldn’t locomote on his own yet, let alone hadn’t made it out of the womb.
I call my son Mr. Man occasionally (he’s one-and-a-half), among other things, but I don’t call him “little man” or “buddy.” I nixed “buddy” purposefully, before he was born, because it seemed overused and also because I’m not his buddy, I’m his mom. “Little man” never really occurred to me, I don’t think. I do call him “little boy” and various and sundry other nicknames.
i call my son “Little Man” because he is a very mature child for his age, and calling him “Boy” doesn’t reflect that maturity. i do sometimes call him “My Boy”, as in, “Good job, My Boy”
I’ve got two boys, both adults, but I don’t remember anyone calling them ‘little men/man’. I think it’s one of the most ridiculous things I’ve ever heard, some people say it when they are newborns. Don’t know why it bothers me so much, but I have said something to a few people, and it just seems so prevalent.
Call little babies ‘little man’, but yet when they are much older it’s ‘boys will be boys’. Thanks for letting me vent.
My father was called ‘little man’ by family members for the 63 years of his life. He wasn’t particularly small, the nickname just stuck from childhood.
Boys are in general more likely to be denied a childhood, to be a man, be strong, to not cry, etc. It is just a artifact of our society.
Welcome to the message board, georgiegirl. This is an older thread (what we call a zombie thread), so some of the original people in this thread may not reply.
We call our 8 month old “Little Man” or “Little Big Man” for several reasons:
Little man doesn’t bother me as much as the ubiquitous “Buddy”.