A couple of days ago...

I was reading this post on Femina about the little things in motherhood, like the unloading of dishwashers before the dinner time rush. The point made in it was worth making and helpful to think about, although I confess that most days, my dishwasher is unloaded before the dinnertime rush begins here (we're once a day dishwasher people in this house)...not that I'm proud, or legalistic about it or anything like that. It just happens or it doesn't and we get by either way. On days when it doesn't happen, yes, that does add a little bit of extra effort to the evening chaos and clean-up time.

Anyway, I digress. I was more than a little offended by the use of the word "spastic" in the post. This was in the context of "everything will feel spastic at dinner time" (if the dishwasher is not unloaded). I showed my husband the post. He didn't like the use of the word either. As therapists, we know that the word "spastic" actually means something completely different to that implied in her post. He actually was commanded in first year physio to never refer to other things (or people) as being "spastic" because the term is so offensive to people with cerebral palsy.

He said I should comment. I was unsure. So I didn't. I thought if I did, the comment might get moderated out of existence.

Fortunately, two other Australian readers were braver than me and said something. I'm glad they did (and Deb, if you're reading, was it you that said it first??).

It's just a reminder that we need to be careful about our choice of words on the world wide web. I do read Femina reasonably often. It's quite good, although I think that sometimes it edges into the territory of home and motherhood idolatry a little too far. In general, the posts are helpful and Biblical. But it's a bit of a turn-off when this kind of language creeps in.