When mother and father just won’t do
A new form was being trialled in three hospitals. Parents adding their newborns to their Medicare cards were asked to provide their full name as the baby’s “birthing parent”. The aim was to reduce the paperwork.
One woman railed against the language saying: “If it had just said parent I would not have flinched – that’s the gender-neutral language.
“If you want to call yourself a ‘birthing parent’ knock yourself out, I only have a problem if you’re forcing me to too.”
In 2021, staff at the Australian National University in Canberra were encouraged to ditch the terms ‘mother’ and ‘father’. Its Gender-Inclusive Handbook requested fathers be referred to as the ‘non-birthing parent’ and the term ‘mother’ replaced with ‘gestational parent’.
The hospital trial was swiftly shut down by government services minister Bill Shorten, who said he was trying to stop an ugly culture war erupting over the issue.
He ordered the forms be replaced by the previous ones that ask parents to identify themselves as either the child’s ‘birth mother’, ‘biological father’ or ‘other’.
“There are many people who feel the word ‘mother’ is special and worthy and there are others who feel their identity is not included. Each has a legitimate point of view,” said Mr Shorten.
“We just need to be better at not having to have one view at the expense of the other.”
What’s your view on the wave of changes to a host of common words? Which do you think are progress and which are rubbish?
Perhaps we are getting ready for
We will all be 'it'
Honest truth....I am sick of all this rubbish. I gave birth to my children and the labour pains certainly let me know I am the "birthing parent"....a cap I am more than happy to wear !
A parent can be anyone who loves and looks after a child, but it is also important to know who gave birth to the child ( if possible) since it would be helpful in tracing a child's medical history.
I'm with the hospitals on this.