"Children"

No humor intended, but the word or phrase used probably depends on how close one is to one's children. My mom still calls my sister and I her kids, while my maternal grandmother refers to her next of kin as young'n's. Formally, "next of kin," "descendents" and the ever-popular "beneficiaries" is used on the legal front. Personally, I plan on calling my own children "my kids" until the day I enter Valhalla (using my Norse background), also known as Heaven. Personal choice is probably the best answer to this query. Of course, you could be like my grandfather and call your offspring "tax write-offs." :)

for the pedantic, there is progeny and scions, for insurance purposes there is descendants, and if you want to be biblical, there is begats.

8-)

Point of order. Valhalla is not a synonym for Heaven unless you happen to be a Viking.

Just for the record, many of my ancestors _were_ Vikings. Besides, we all know that Valhalla is a lovely little town in New York (home of the Vikings, ironically enough). And what was the name of that Belinda Carlisle song--"Heaven Is a Place On Earth?" Hmm...

Aaron,

Not to slip off the subject, but how do you feel about the opening of the Viking exhibit at the Washington DC Museum of Natural History? I read a short article about Hillary's comments about the opening. Is it true that Viking society was the embodiment of late 20th century feminist thought?

I must admit being slightly bewildered. I got this image of Hildegard, the fat woman with long blond braided pigtails, white gilded robe, and horned helmet singing at the end of an opera. But since it was Hillary making comment, I wondered if she was just referring to the fact that the men had extramarital "sexual relations" while they were out pillaging small villages. I tend to think that what "modern perspective" is depends on the person.

She thought they were into: War, Rape, and Village.

On 4/12/99 5:09:11 AM, Roger Gay wrote:
>Aaron,
>
>Not to slip off the subject,
>but how do you feel about the
>opening of the Viking exhibit
>at the Washington DC Museum of
>Natural History? I read a
>short article about Hillary's
>comments about the opening. Is
>it true that Viking society
>was the embodiment of late
>20th century feminist thought?
>
>I must admit being slightly
>bewildered. I got this image
>of Hildegard, the fat woman
>with long blond braided
>pigtails, white gilded robe,
>and horned helmet singing at
>the end of an opera. But since
>it was Hillary making comment,
>I wondered if she was just
>referring to the fact that the
>men had extramarital "sexual
>relations" while they were out
>pillaging small villages. I
>tend to think that what
>"modern perspective" is
>depends on the person.
>

I suspect calling grown-up offspring "adult children" would unintentionally brand them 12-steppers, so that's out. Maybe "big kids." Nah. Taken.

I guess there's just no satisfactory word for unchildren....

That's it!

Jack! Jack! How could you! I'm already out of words which is very childish of me. Now what I want to know is which of the parents starts thinking in these 'unchildren' terms first? Good word there, Dan. ;-)

(I may be making this up, but) I think my
cousin calls her grown progeny, "my adults".