Parenting Lingo Gets The Oxford Stamp Of Approval

Whenever you’re in a specialised subculture, it can feel like the most useful of words take an absurdly long time to reach the pages of the dictionary. And as we all know, parenting is a specialised subculture.

But we’re getting there: In the latest redesign of the Oxford English Dictionary and Thesaurus, among the 2,000 new words, alongside “flash mob” and “unsubscribe,” there are “co-sleeping,” “prekindergarten,” “C-section,” and “homeschooling,” each of which seem to me like they must have been in circulation for decades.

Anyone want start a pool to bet on when “nanny cam,” “boob nazi,” “mommy blogger,” and “unschooling” show up?

Photo CC adotjdotsmith.