The annual list of terms that deserve to be banned just came out, and I think it falls a litle short on the parenting lingo. When the mom and pop terms first appear, they maybe seem funny or twisted or innocuous or entertaining or whatever. Then they appear more and more, until finally you start to think if one more person refers to, say, "MILFs" you might have to barf--especially if it's in the "MILPH" sense. (Note to mommys making lingerie calendars--don't try and reclaim these terms in a faux-empowerment way, please.) They get overused and nauseating and when MSNBC uses them in a headline, you know the whole thing has so jumped the shark. It's over. Done. Let's erase the term from the lexicon and move on.
My nominees for this year's overused parenting terms: "baby-daddy" and "yummy mummy". Baby-daddy just got used here: "Jamie Lynn's baby-daddy a 'lying, cheating dog'." Sigh. Kill me now.Maybe you haven't seen "yummy mummy" as much as I have, because I have to troll both British and U.S. papers for parenting stories, but believe me, this U.K.-originated one is supposed to be a softer version of MILF, it's used regularly, and I didn't like it to begin with. So for 2008, let's start with a clean slate and replace these with something better, something you'll have to come up with because I don't invent language, I just bag on it. And nominate anything else you'd like to see stricken from the record for good.
