No two families are the same - as one mum on social media has been keen to point out.
Associate Professor Sirry Alang has gone viral on Twitter after posting a series of tweets explaining why she thinks teachers should stop saying "mums and dads" to young pupils at school.
As she explains, not every child has a mum or a dad and some children have neither.
She said: "Teachers, ur class convos are broadcasted in everyone’s homes. The # of times the teacher has said 'your mom and dad' to my kid’s class is infuriating.
"But a BRAVE kid just said...'But I only told my grandma at lunch time because my sister and I live with our grandma'.
"Then of course my kid jumped in right away & said: 'I don’t have a dad & it’s ok because my mom said there are different kinds of families. Even though I would want a dad but she’s gay. Gay means she only dates women.' LOL. Now my business is out there."
She added that her child's teacher said sorry after realisig the gaff.
She said: "But teacher apologized and said she’ll start saying 'parent or the adult helping you at home'. I have faith in this generation."
The professor's tweets have attracted alot of attention gaining thousands of likes and retweets with lots of fellow parents agreeing that the language used in classrooms should be more inclusive.
One person replied: "1) Your kid is awesome. 2) Caregiver is the easy, more inclusive word she is looking for."
Another said: "Your kid sounds rad! Our school uses 'your grownups'."
A third said: "I had a student once who had to remind me *3 times* that his mom was dead and his dad was in jail. I felt so stupid and awful. Caregiver is better."
A different user added: "Good reminder to think before we speak."
