What is the word for a person who loves children, but not in the traditional sense in which we understand the word “pedophile”?
Think in terms of someone who protects or strongly advocates for children, like say a lawyer who specializes in children’s rights.
I think that Andrew Vachss calls himself a child’s rights advocate. Not too exciting an answer and not one word, but I’m not sure there is one.
Normal human being? Parent? Sibling?
Pediatric, pedologic or pedagogic, as adverbs?
Problem is, pedagogic means you teach kids, pediatric means you treat kids, and pedologic means you try to figure kids out.
I’m not sure if there is a word. “I love kids” has just as many syllables as “pedophile” does.
ignore this, see other post.
Sorry, no nouns that I can think of. The best I can do is either the adjective “avuncular” or “nurturing.” Not quite what you are looking for, I know.
Parent
Pediadvocate.
(I made it up, and now I shall lobby for its inclusion into M-W.)
Dad
The only one I can think of is ‘philoprogenitive’. There’s another one, but I can’t remember it for the life of me.
Didn’t pedophile originally mean a person who loves kids in a not-necessarily sexual way, but over time it has developed to its current meaning which pretty much precludes anyone wanting to use the term to describe themselves?
I wouldn’t know for certain, but I’m pretty sure the answer is no. The ‘-phile’ suffix generally refers to an irrational fixation, an attraction as severe as the repulsion of a ‘-phobe’. It can be used non-judgementally, or humorously, but pretty much always indicates some level of obsession. So I can’t imagine ‘pedophile’ ever being used in a strictly positive way- children aren’t something one is ever supposed to be obsessed with.
For examples, there’s audiophile and xenophile.