A couple of days ago I went with my daughter to a large Essex shopping complex - the one on the bank of a stretch of water. They have opened up a children's play area and so we went in. In a soft play area for small children there was a sign asking that you shut the gate. Unfortunately it was addressed to "Mummy's and Daddies". Oh dear! If you're going to get it wrong, get it completely wrong!
If you go there and the children are ensconced in playing, try reading the snack bar menu. If you can ignore the fact that Every Word In A Sentence Begins With A Capital Letter, then you can have fun spotting the apostrophe errors; i.e. the ones present that shouldn't be and the ones not present that should be. You could also try spotting the spelling mistakes. For instance, we decided "chessy" was a spelling mistake and meant "cheesy" (unless it was chestnut flavoured ...).
Well, I suppose it doesn't matter that our children are exposed to all this general lack of correct English. After all, this week we hear they may well do away with boring things in the national curriculum like Victorian history and have lessons in "twittering" and blogging instead. And in those worlds, spelling, grammar and so on play no part at all.
But back to that sign I started with. Surely (ignoring the grammar) it is politically incorrect. After all, I was a grandad and I was not mentioned. So I think it ought to be worded as follows:
To all mummies, daddies, grandmas, nannies (who prefer nanny to grandma), grandads, carers and all who are 'in loco parentis'
Has that covered everyone?
how about siblings????
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