A gender-neutral term for son or daughter? [closed]

Question

I am looking for a term that could be used to describe one's offspring* in a gender neutral manner. Normally, female offspring are called daughters and male offspring are called sons. The three terms are can think of to describe an offspring with no gender are:

• Child - implies an age under that of majority
• Adult child - explicitly states an age over that of majority
• Offspring - unlikely to be used in an informal context ("My offpsring just passed a physics exam")

Is there a single term that can be used to describe an offpsring of no or unknown gender without assuming age, in an informal context?

Sample sentence:

My _______ just passed a physics exam

*I use this term to avoid implying an age (child or adult)

Answer 1

First of all, I don't agree that child necessarily implies a specific age. But I can see why it might be taken that way.

Asking a senior Do you have a child? wouldn't sound completely natural.

Interestingly, however, asking them Do you have any children? does.

So, for some reason, children (in context) has less of an association with youth than child.

---

That aside, the most "natural" term, even though not nearly as common, is descendant. Granted, however, it can also apply to grandchildren.

By common implication, heir could also mean a child of any age (although it has a very specific context—and it need not actually be a blood relative or one of a younger generation.)

Answer 2

It's possible to use both child and kid to include adults (with kids being slightly less formal). Indeed, Mari-Lou A's comment links to the Oxford Dictionary entry for "child" which has a definition:

A son or daughter of any age.
‘when children leave home, parents can feel somewhat redundant’
_{Oxford Dictionary}

Other examples:

As a parent, you might have mixed feelings about encouraging your child to move out.
_WikiHow

Here are five strategies to nurture the friendship during your kids' 20s and beyond: ...
_AARP.org

See also the Wikipedia page for child and the question Referring to adult-age sons and daughters as children.

However, there is ambiguity of "child" also meaning "minor", which we avoid by saying adult child or some variant, such as:

Over a third of these parents said their children cannot afford to live on their own, and more than 77 percent said they don't want their grown children to live with them.
_{ABC News}

However, adult child is slightly suggestive of immaturity (along the lines of "an adult that acts like a child").

Most women/men find this highly unattractive and hence the adult child generally stays single either forever or until they finally do something about their situation and change their life.
_{Urban Dictionary}

It's also possible to circumvent expressing gender by writing e.g.:

My 22-year-old has returned to live at home, and I couldn’t be happier.
_{The Guardian}

Regarding offspring with no gender, we might append agender, such as in:

Full of compassion, love, and many many questions, Libby shares 5 realizations she learned on her journey to understanding her agender child.
_{Genderqueer.me}

where indeed the agender person wrote:

i am:
– agender
– your oldest kid
– they

Answer 3

Well, you could say, like the old James Thurber cartoon:

"Why, I Never Dreamed Your Union Had Been Blessed With Issue!"

but that's a bit stilted and recondite and, in this context, a joke.

What most people would likely say to people of child-bearing age:

Got any kids?

If the prospective parents are older, you can put it in the past tense:

Did you ever have kids?

It's a fairly innocuous question, not likely to run off the rails unless you happen to tap into some family tragedy: "My wife can't have children. We tried adopting, but ..."

Answer 4

Progeny, offspring, descendents. All those mean children, though they're a little formal.