Really? Who's kid did you mean? When you let the word "retard" or the phrase "that's just retarded" fly out of your mouth. I shouldn't be upset because you didn't mean my kid.
Listen up. It's 2013. Get hip with the lingo. The "R" word is no longer cool. In my mind, long before I even had the kiddo, it wasn't cool. Buy a thesaurus. Find another word.
Stop using this term to equate the neurological make up of my kid to when you don't like something. Don't use this term when you or someone else makes a mistake. My kiddo is NOT a mistake.
You are equating an entire population of people to something negative. You probably know better than to use the "n" word. Or the "f" word. So why not this one? Maybe because you think my son won't understand and call you out. Guess what? I understand and I have no problem calling you out on it. And the whole, "oh they won't catch on" Yeah, I call bullshit on that too. My son might not catch on at first but upon hearing it again and again and using that same tone, he will start to understand what it means. He will start to think his very existence is something bad.
I get it that some people don't know or didn't mean it. I'm 38. I'm in that generation where we started figuring out that using a medical condition as a put down or a punch line is really not cool. Some of us even take it one step further and actively call people out on it when they hear it used. I know there are even some people who just don't use it around me because they know I will tear them a new one but probably let it slip out in other places. If you can make the effort not to do it around a certain person, you can do it for everyone else too. Get your act together. We owe it to our kids. No matter what their neurology.
March 6th is Spread the word to end the word day. Take the pledge at r-word.org. Share this on facebook. Talk to people about it. Explain it as this. Why would you want an entire population of people to feel like they are less than?
If they say they didn't mean your kid, remind them they are talking about some one's kid. Some one's pride and joy. Stick up for all kids. Not just the ones you know.