Okay. Do you know what the most irritating thing people can say is?

[conuly]

"My child is not an animal."

(Maybe that's not the most irritating thing, but it's pretty fucking annoying, don't you agree?)

Say it with me, very loudly:

Children are animals.

Unless, of course, you bought your child at a plant nursery, or built it from spare parts, in which case I suggest you give some context before trotting that line out.

Most children, though, perform all the functions that you'd expect from, well, animals - they eat, they poop, they sleep.

Now, if you mean to say "My child is not a dog", say that, and if you mean to say "I think doing this, that, or the other thing is demeaning", then say that, and if you mean to say "Actually, my kid is a robot", go ahead and say that. But please - stop it with the "not an animal" line!

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It probably wouldn't make my own personal list of 20 Most Irritating Things People Can Say, but I grant it is pretty fucking annoying.

Of course humans, both children and adults, are animals, but a lot of them have an irrational bias against acknowledging this seemingly-obvious fact. Often this may be partly because they don't really know that much about animals, and especially about other primates - they see chimps on TV, but that doesn't equate to knowing them.

Human children share an unnerving number of behaviors with juvenile chimpanzees, but pointing out these similarities does not tend to endear one to the childrens' parents, who often go into a classic threat-display at the very notion.

[conuly]

*giggles*

I really want to metaquote that last paragraph. Can I?

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

It probably wouldn't make my own personal list of 20 Most Irritating Things People Can Say, but I grant it is pretty fucking annoying.

Of course humans, both children and adults, are animals, but a lot of them have an irrational bias against acknowledging this seemingly-obvious fact. Often this may be partly because they don't really know that much about animals, and especially about other primates - they see chimps on TV, but that doesn't equate to knowing them.

Human children share an unnerving number of behaviors with juvenile chimpanzees, but pointing out these similarities does not tend to endear one to the childrens' parents, who often go into a classic threat-display at the very notion.

[conuly]

*giggles*

I really want to metaquote that last paragraph. Can I?