She's just upset because her son is retarded.
She knows he'll never be a doctor or a lawyer or an engineer or whatever and that he will have a hard time. At the moment she's still struggling to accept it so she's lashing out at the world and the word in the hope she can in some way protect her son. Hopefully she'll grow to accept things and move on.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 17:57, 1 reply)

Of course she's bloody protecting her son
He's got more than enough to contend with in life without the casual cruelty of insults like "retard". Ask parents of kids with Down's how they feel about "mongol" and "mong". Just upset because their children will never be doctors or engineers?
(ubergeekian, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 22:31, closed)

I was being deliberatly harsh, but I think it's largely true.
I don't blame her in the slightest for what she's trying to do, I may well do the same in that position.
However, the least of her problems is the fact that some use the word "retarded" to mean something derogatory and even getting rid of the word will not prevent any predjudice or problems her son will endure. In fact, it's probably her that the word will hurt and not him -- he'll not likely hear it or understand ehat it means to her.
She has my upmost sympathy but I disagree with her on this and beleive she's doing it because she's mourning not because it will make a difference.
Edit: There is also a world of difference between taunting a disabled person with a term and directing it towards someone who is not. If you took the words "retard" and "mongol" out of use tomorrow then people would use other ways to insult disabled people if that was their goal.
(Me, I'm not... in any way intoxicated, Wed 7 Mar 2012, 23:00, closed)