You can't say that!

I hate the new-speak for mistakes... calling them 'missed opportunities'. Especially when it concerns a child dying due to what is obviously medical negligence.

Missed opportunities my a$$...and lessons learned, not an apology or admission of making the mistake. Mistakes are mistakes!

My friends nephew enjoy wearing women' clothes, he's not a cross-dresser but gender-fluid.

Tiggersuki.I do not believe that you as a child of three would have understood what 'died' meant.
Many now use the word passed on in preference, but passed on to where? Equally confusing to a young person.
You are still grieving.Your stepmother has not been all she should have been to you and your sister.
There are organisations that will help you concerning your feelings over the loss of your mother. No matter how long it has been since your loss.Citizens Advice will give you the details or go on line.

Blue Belle - Oh yes to your page 1 post!! I actually choked on my cup of tea!
How twee can people get?!

I lived next door to an American girl who said she was not coloured, she was black. She hated the coloured word.

Hearing impaired covers a range of issues. Hearing can be much more difficult in certain circumstances, or easier in others. Likewise visually impaired. Pupils in school in PSHE lessons can be given different glasses to show the different sight problems that some people have, and then asked to walk round (with a friend). Really enhances empathy

What should I say? He and his mother are both culturaly British so mixed culture makes no sense. Actually i dont refer to him by aything except his name!

I find it very difficult to ssy the right think. When I was a chid you called domeone a black person. Then that was wrong and it was coloured which became wrong so I said west indian - but that's not always correct because they might be British or African for example . Tgen we were told to say black - i was told this by a black lady training us in inclusion at a new job . But now people are referring to people of colour. We go round in circles!
I qorked in teaching with a black man who deliberately referred to blackboards , black coffee etc as they are simply descriptive and not negative or derogatory in any way ( as are giving someone a black mark for example.)
I have a mixed race grandchild and had no idea that term is wrong!

If we are dealing with the people directly concerned we can ask them how they refer to themselves or their condition and how they want us to refer to them or it.

However, discussing any group of society as a group, I think we have to try to use the terms the particular group finds acceptable and we must, surely, as a matter of good manners avoid those they find offensive.

That being said, I am with you on the use of euphemisms for death, bodily functions etc. etc.

Not being from the London area my personal aversion as always been the word "loo" - why can people not just say they need the toilet? We all do, regularly! But there you are, you see: euphemisms are a matter of habit.
These days they are abounding and making communication difficult sometimes. Going into hospital for a procedure is a good example - after all a simple blood test or X-ray is a procedure, but obviously not in the sense hospitals are using the word now.

Many years ago, my DS told us that a sneaky little laugh should be called a 'snegro'.
We still do that.

I really dislike the phrase "ended up in a wheelchair". It sounds as if the person has been dumped there and that's that.

Don't you think that often the "offence" is felt not by the person who is disabled/short sighted/mixed race/black/gay or whatever but by someone anxious to show their PC side?

A friend of mine once said that he felt those who took offence on his behalf (he was West Indian) were more racist than those who used the n word because they were giving the impression that he wasn't intelligent enough to know when he had been insulted!!

When people ask me how I lost dh I get cross. I didn't lose him, I'm not that disorganised! He died!

When my daughter was 6 and lost her front teeth I said she was "Dentally disadvantaged!"

Going to an old school reunion earlier this year the conversation got on to people who had been our school friends but who had since passed away! Another one of our friends said no...that's not how it's said now...the term now is to say "they died". It would seem that people are now becoming fed up with all the PC nonsense of dressing words up and reverting back to how things are.

DISABLED

This visually impaired person has counted her pennies and finally made an appointment at the opticians..
looking at the prices for variofocal,photochromic ultralight specs, it would be cheaper to go on a cruise!
My crutches ( ok carbon fibre, but much lighter to use) cost an arm and a leg and as for things like house adapting, you need to be very well off to be didabled!

...and when did we start using POO? Poo is the smell you get from a number two, a jobbie or just plain s**t.

Its impossible to know each and every persons personal ailments, ills, and preferences, and ridiculous that we're somehow expected to know.. as long as something isn't said with deliberate intent to offend, then that should be that.

I have a friend who is a paraplegic but he is not disabled - he was my gliding instructor - he just can't feel his legs. Forever wearing out the tyres on his wheelchair.

My husband is visually impaired Sheilasue - he is neither shortsighted nor longsighted, but has macular degeneration, which he described as like looking through fog, with very little central vision. Visually impaired people are entitled to various sorts of help depending on the degree of impairment.

An ex of mine who was mixed race (as it was called then) preferred the term half caste. His most preferred way to be referred to was 'mulatto' which apparently means mule coloured.

A family member died lately, sister kept talking about when he passes, then when it did happen said "he's passed" I felt like saying passed what his driving test! I think it's cringeworthy, and I'm going to inform my kids to tell people when it's my time that I've died not passed or passed away, people can talk how they want, but I want it said how it is

My problem is trying to keep up with what is considered 'politically correct' (and by whom, I might add). I would NEVER knowingly offend anyone but my civil servant son has smiled and pulled me up a couple of times with 'be careful not to say that in public, won't you?' when he and I are debating an issue. I genuinely don't know what I've said 'wrongly' until he explains some other persons' take on it. Blimey the twisted logic then leaves me speechless which is......maybe where we'll all end up?!!

Have a mixed culture grandaughter, apparantly it's not mixed race now it's all pc
Visually impaired, another I think. We are either short sighted or long sighted I thought.