In Great Britain, schools have outraged parents by requesting that children no longer call their parents “mom” and “dad.” Because school staff do not want to offend any families who are considered “non-traditional,” headteachers at schools across Brighton implemented this strange instruction. Whether a kid has two moms, two dads, a non-binary parent, or no parents at all, schools want students to refer to their parents or guardians as “grownups.”
The new language has caused issues for students and parents at four schools. Despite the fact that they only want to protect different family units, the schools are making things difficult for kids who refer to their parents as “mom” and “dad.”
The school website at St Luke’s Primary School in Brighton, one of the schools making the change, was modified to include new language regarding the change.
“We have an Equalities Language Code for staff (e.g., to value all families, we never refer to ‘mums and dads’ and instead talk about ‘grownups’).”
Another school, Elm Grove Primary School in Birmingham, believes that its Equalities Statement will benefit children from non-traditional families. The following is their statement:
“We try to talk about our ‘grownups’ rather than our ‘mums and dads’ to acknowledge the different family groupings our pupils live in.”
The schools of England’s Brighton will no longer use the words “mom” or “dad,” and their website was recently modified to say, “We try to talk about our ‘grownups’ rather than our ‘mums and dads’ to acknowledge the different family groupings our pupils live in.”
Saltdean Primary, meanwhile, has modified its Equality and Diversity Policy as follows: “Language- we use the terms parents/carers rather than ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ as we recognize that our families are made up of many different people. When children start at Saltdean, they discuss and share what makes a family for them. This allows children to see different family dynamics than their own but also helps them to recognize that it is the relationships that make a family.”
Meanwhile, parents are furious about the new rules. One enraged parent told Daily Mail about it, saying: “It’s very confusing for us adults, never mind the kids. They just don’t understand why the teachers can’t call their mums or dads, mum or dad? I know the schools are trying to take into account the different kinds of families pupils may come from, but the majority have a mum or dad, regardless of if they are together or not. So why can’t staff just keep it simple for the kids and call their parents what they are; mum or dad?”
Another parent stated, “In trying to be more inclusive, the schools are forgetting about mum and dad, the most important people in a kid’s life. This is just madness. Where will it stop?”
Despite this, the schools argue that they are using the word “grownups” instead of “mom” or “dad” since there are more and more children being reared by persons other than their biological parents.
