When a kid is a child
A woman called today to suggest that we should not have referred to this child as a "kid" as we do in the fourth paragraph.
"You should have put it in quotes or changed it to 'the child,'" she said. "The colloquialism 'the kid' is just not appropriate."
I had a boss who insisted the same thing, although he wasn't as polite as the caller. He would ask, "Are you calling that child a baby goat, because that's what a kid is."
"In your world, perhaps," I once replied, "but to the rest of us on Planet Earth, a kid is an adolescent child."
The look I got in return inspired me to change it to "child" and not do that again.
Until now.