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I would say the opposite. That it was so common for your children to not survive infancy or survive beyond 5 that there didn't need to be a word. People used to not even name their child until after their first birthday. And a lot of cultures celebrate a child's birth months or years after the birth because they have survived long enough.

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Urban myth

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I mean it’s unnatural for a parent to outlive their children. Like … they’re born after us. like in that sense.

like it was never intended for a parent to live longer than their kid. Even if it did happen— it wasn’t supposed to.

Does that make sense?

But I absolutely love what you said.

Even though it’s sad. but you know what I mean.

Historically infant and childbirth deaths were very common. Only recently in human history has this changed, so there were no words developed for this incidence. It’s like how there is no words for people with two hands. It’s such a regular occurrence that it’s expected so there was never a need to develop vocabulary for it. We’re talking about A few hundred years ago.

But what about with widows and stuff? that was pretty common too.

And a person with two hands is called ambidextrous. Doesn’t it mean having two hands, having two hands that work equally well, etc

I get what you're saying. And I agree.

I'm facing my parents' mortality and it feels wrong to have to survive the death of the only people you've known your whole life - who have known you through it all. Not unnatural just not fair. Though life has no obligation to fairness somehow that doesn't ease the pain.

My dads 64 and he’s my entire world. Besides my daughter. (He used to say I was his favorite, don’t tell my twin sister though, and now he says my daughter is— but like I know even though he calls and I answer and he’s like ‘oh. Hey wheres kp’ like my four year old will answer MY PHONE, he loves me the most. So it’s whatever) like he’s literally everything.

I honestly don’t know how I’ll survive. and he’s got health issues and I’m scared he’s not telling me so I don’t worry.

Yeah that never works. Family will always worry.

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Y’know there’s something called Google… Vilomah

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its very natural for kids to die before the parents, for most of human history that was very common

Vilomah is the technical term, but i agree with all the above posts

that sounds like something from the Witcher

They were talking about literally having two hands, not two dominant hands.

Yeah we can adopt any word into the language, but there is not yet one which has been produced by or adopted into English.

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Widow or widower is primarily used to describe marital status - single, married, divorced, widowed

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What? It describes a man or woman whose spouse has died and they haven’t remarried.

You are not a widow/er just because you haven’t married.

That’s what bachelor and bachelorette are for.

I know what they meant. But isn’t that definition the same?

And isn’t it just something that’s natural. Which brings me back to losing a parent before a child is the natural way of things so there’s no word for it?

That just means against the natural order of things.

There’s no technical term in the English language.

Apparently there’s a petition to get it into the dictionary

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Now this has me thinking.

How do we know it’s natural or what was intended I guess.

I do not believe in god.

so I’m not asking what he wanted lol

But couldn’t that just be because of the circumstances— you know. Like they didn’t have healthcare like we do now. and the life expectancy was much shorter.

I mean they say a mother has hormones that make her think her baby is cute so we don’t just abandon them— so we take care of them basically.

Oh my god. My heads just going everywhere.

Yeah I did google and that never came up.

And that’s not even an English word.

You know there’s such thing as reading and comprehension. If you didn’t understand what I meant you can just say that

And it just means the unnatural order of things. it doesn’t specifically mean a parent who has lost a child.

AND there’s literally a petition to get it into the dictionary.

I did google.

Thank you. Fucking thank you.

If you have a good relationship with him, ask him questions and stories. And if he’s willing, record them. Ask him his favorite school memory, or about when you were born, or his first prom date. You have no idea how valuable the stories will be when you can no longer ask. And even better for a video that you can enjoy. The history of you is gone when your parents are gone, so whatever questions you want to ask about his past or yours-— now is the time.

I gave my father a blank journal, and I told him that anytime he thought of some piece of wisdom or a little anecdote that he wanted to share, he should write in it. He thought it was stupid at first, but then he really got into it, and I treasure it.

Not that I'm aware of.

Language is always changing, new words come from nothing. Grow your mind.

https://en.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/widow

Also lying doesn’t help you.

>People used to not even name their child until after their first birthday

I wasn't aware of this practice until I went through a few older graveyards looking for relatives. So many tiny gravestones marked "Baby (lastname)". A real eye opener.

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It wasn’t natural a couple of hundred years ago. The reverse was the case.

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It IS intended. Evolutionarily speaking.

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