# More Expressions I Hate **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 19, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579 "2002-11-19T18:50:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Suspenderzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Suspenderzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspenderzzz)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 6:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/1 "2002-11-19T18:50:04Z")
**Working Families** The _whole_ family isn’t working; just the adult members. Or did they repeal child labor laws, and I missed it? On a deeper meaning, that ties in with the “Heroes”, etc. topic I started, I hate that expression because it somehow implies that people who earn their money (instead of living off a trust fund or being on welfare) are somehow special. Living of a salary is the norm, not the exception, no? Why does it need special mention, as if it were the exception? (And let me not even get started on the vaguely implied “hardship” factor here…) **Raising A Family** What’s wrong with simply “raising your KIDS”??? Not the whole family is being raised; presumably one or more members of the family are already adults, no? These expressions were non-existent before 1990. They were created during the early 90’s, along with “Family Values”. The other family-related expression I hate that’s been around only slightly longer is “Stay-At-Home-Mom”. What the fuck is wrong with saying ‘HOUSEWIFE’??? ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/2 "2002-11-19T18:56:15Z")
I think your suspenderzzz are a size or two too small. ---
**Author:** ![Siemsi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Siemsi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siemsi)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/3 "2002-11-19T18:57:10Z")
Suspenderzzz I agree with you with the “working families” term. BUT… Housewife is an old expression. Homemaker is probably what you are thinking about. (My mom called herself a homemaker in the 70’s). Please don’t get me started…these “housewives” do a helluva lot more than just “wifey” things! They keep the house in order, clean, cook, take care of children… I think it all started when some idiot (possibly of the male persuasion) asked his wife, “What the f\*ck do you do all day long at home?!” **as he ducks from being hit with a frying pan by his fuming wife** That, my friend, is how the “stay-at-home mom” term/expression/ saying started. Homemakers just want respect, that’s all. ---
**Author:** ![Suspenderzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Suspenderzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspenderzzz)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/4 "2002-11-19T19:01:13Z")
**Siemsi** – I could live with “homemaker”. That one doesn’t bother me for some reason. There is something about stay-at-home-mom that rubs me the wrong way. But I guess it could be worse. For a brief period of time they tried to call it “domestic engineer”. Thank God, that one didn’t catch on! ---
**Author:** ![Waverly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/57b2e6/32.png) [@Waverly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Waverly)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/5 "2002-11-19T19:11:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by JuanitaTech \* > \*\*I think your suspenderzzz are a size or two too small. \*\* This seems to be his [proverbial one trick.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=144305) Welcome to our very own Arbiter of the Popular Lexicon. I like to picture him with a dog-eared copy of a 1960ish copy of the Websters Children’s Dictionary and a tinfoil hat. ---
**Author:** ![Siemsi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b19c9b/32.png) [@Siemsi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siemsi)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/6 "2002-11-19T19:12:19Z")
Suspenderzzz, I think “stay-at-home-mom” came about during this (at least what I would call) new revolution of career women CHOOSING to stay at home with their children. I agree with “domestic engineer”…shit. I think my mom may have used that once. LOL! ---
**Author:** ![Atreyu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@Atreyu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atreyu)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/7 "2002-11-19T19:15:19Z")
I’ve always suspected that “stay-at-home-mom” was started because so many of those that would have been called “housewife” were divorced, thus the “wife” portion of that name not making much sense. ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/8 "2002-11-19T19:32:35Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Atreyu \* > I’ve always suspected that “stay-at-home-mom” was started because so many of those that would have been called “housewife” were divorced, thus the “wife” portion of that name not making much sense. Or, perhaps to distinguish themselves from women who stayed home and had no children to take care of as well. ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/9 "2002-11-19T19:44:01Z")
Publish a definitive text book that is accepted and used by main stream educational institutions and then I will listen. Until then I will regard your comments with the disdain they merit. ---
**Author:** ![auntie\_em](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5e9695/32.png) [@auntie\_em](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/auntie_em)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/10 "2002-11-19T20:11:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suspenderzzz \* > **These expressions were non-existent before 1990. They were created during the early 90’s, along with “Family Values”.** I think Steve Miller would disagree: _So come on, pretty baby, We’re gonna **raise a familee-ee** …_ (_True Fine Love_, ca. 1977) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/11 "2002-11-19T20:13:36Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by LouisB \* > \*\*Publish a definitive text book that is accepted and used by main stream educational institutions and then I will listen. Until then I will regard your comments with the disdain they merit. \*\* Is this the standard that you are going to require from everyone here at the SDMB? Seems a little harsh to me but Ok, I will get to work. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/12 "2002-11-19T20:15:24Z")
**Auntie Em**!! Missed ya, babe! How ya doing? Haven’t seen you around in a while. (Nothing to say to the OP…there’s already one “Phrases **SuspenderZZZ** dislikes” thread going on.) ---
**Author:** ![LouisB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/dfb087/32.png) [@LouisB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LouisB)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/13 "2002-11-19T20:27:48Z")
**Shagnasty,** no, just this excrement based life form OP. ---
**Author:** ![Suspenderzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Suspenderzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspenderzzz)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/14 "2002-11-19T20:33:57Z")
Louis, honey, tell me _what_ is so horribly offensive about the OP? “Excrement-based”? I find it comparably tame, actually. You know what? I think you are just prejudiced against anything that comes from me, because my views from that other string pissed you off so. If this here OP had come from any ole’ Joe Blow, you couldn’t have cared less. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/15 "2002-11-19T20:37:18Z")
No, **Suspenders** , it’s just that he’s intimidated by you because you’re such a cutting-edge, outside-the-box rebel. (insert appropriate smile here) ---
**Author:** ![Suspenderzzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/cc9497/32.png) [@Suspenderzzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Suspenderzzz)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/16 "2002-11-19T20:39:27Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferrous \* > \*\*No, **Suspenders** , it’s just that he’s intimidated by you because you’re such a cutting-edge, outside-the-box rebel. (insert appropriate smile here) \*\* Don’t leave out “Delicate Genius”. LOL! ---
**Author:** ![UrbanChic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9dc877/32.png) [@UrbanChic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UrbanChic)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/17 "2002-11-19T20:41:52Z")
The OP isn’t so much offensive as it is just trite. In the case of your first peeve, you’re getting all worked up because the word family is being used in lieu of parents. Big fucking whoop. Have you ever thought about families in which the children are fourteen and over. It _is_ possible to be a working family. There’s nothing intrinsicly wrong with the phrase ‘raising a family’, either. I don’t know about you, but I hope to learn as much from my kids as they do from me. So if we use the word ‘raise’ to be synonomous with the word ‘grow’ then the phrase ‘raising a family’ is fine. ---
**Author:** ![Greyson3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/258eb7/32.png) [@Greyson3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greyson3)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/18 "2002-11-19T20:51:31Z")
> [@](#): > > Don’t leave out “Delicate Genius”. LOL! OMG!!! ROFLOFLOLFOSDFIASDFDLJKASDJKL:FSFLJK:SDAFJL:KDS ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/19 "2002-11-19T20:55:41Z")
Wow, she thought I was serious. That is one major ego. ---
**Author:** ![kambuckta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/53a042/32.png) [@kambuckta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kambuckta)\ **Post date:** [November 19, 2002, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579/20 "2002-11-19T21:21:59Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Suspenderzzz \* > \*\* > **Raising A Family** > What’s wrong with simply “raising your KIDS”??? Not the whole family is being raised; presumably one or more members of the family are already adults, no? > \*\* What a frivolous bee you have in your bonnet today…😛 Surely being a struggling and courageous single mum would give you more meaningful issues to bring to the pit? And someone of your obviously superior intelligence and wisdom _must_ have more gripes about the state of the post-modern world than you have posted here. Now, I’m off to work so that I can continue to raise my family, and thereby avoid the incredible hardships that would arise if I remained a stay-at-home mum. And for your information, I DO reckon I’m a bloody hero for doing so. 😃 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/more-expressions-i-hate/137579.md?page=2)