Here is the context for the 'lil devil' comment:
When he fell quiet and the foster mother could not find him she told her mother, “I can’t see William” and her mother replied, “Oh, the little devil”.
She worried because “William is only quiet usually when he is sick … if he was distressed … he will cry, scream out” and “William doesn’t stray”.
My 92 year old mother says 'lil devil' in an endearing way, when speaking about her 5 yr old great grand son. She said that verbatim when he tried to sneak some extra cookie from the counter BEFORE we ate dinner... She laughed and said to my SIL, " He didnt know I saw that, the lil Devil.'
I really don't think my mother meant anything derogatory by saying that---it is an old saying about young children, used often as a descriptive way of saying they are impulsive...
Here is the 2nd statement:
At the end of day one, the foster mother came off the stand and was embraced by the foster father in court, but continued her testimony into day two.
She told the court Nanna had thought William too “hyperactive, boisterous” in his play immediately before he vanished.
When the foster father returned from nearby Lakewood and the Kendall shops, and was told about William, he “bolted … running for William and I didn’t see him for ages after that”.
Is that really speaking negatively about the child? The FGM was about 80 years old? Don't most 80 yr olds describe 3 yr old boys as seeming to be boisterous and hyper? My grandmother thought my son was when he was 3. I remember going to a County Fair with her and my 3 yr old and she kept wanting him to sit down with us and was nervous about seeing him running about and wanting to touch everything....I don't think that is unusual behaviour for the 3 yr old OR the 80 yr old. JMO
I agree with you Kateydid23
My Grandparents called us Little Devils, as children, or when we got caught climbing/ jumping off the water tank getting into the wheat bins they would say " You little Buggers" before you get too shocked SillyBilly ,Mods and everyone " The Bugger Word in Australia is a expression of "Oh Bloody Hell" Moment or Darn it.
They have done here a Toyata car advertisment few years ago, ute takes off sprays mud on the washing hanging on the line, woman looks at it says: Bugger"
It not meant as a negative speaking.
My Understanding partner gives me a cheeky pat, I called him a "Cheeky Devil or Cheeky Bugger, or Bugger you and the horse you rode on.
I hope no one needs smelling salts, but I not insulting my partner but flirting with him.
Yes, I admit I have called them, Little Devils, Evil Overlords but it is when talking to a friends about some of the mischief/ situations they out up to, we laugh.
In Australia we use the words Bart**Ds and Bi****s as affection and insult. It is the way you express it.
I remember in 1960's or 1970's there was a comic called Little Devil, he tried to do the right thing always got into Mischief or a situation. I guessing when it came out because my Grandparents had a couple of Little Devil comics in their house which was in the 1970's
William playing may have been over the top, according Foster Grandmother, she was tired, just got out hospital and elderly but she still loved him very much, hence little Devil.
As my Grandparents did with my siblings and I, even though we were taken away from them, they never stopped loving us, being Little Devils in mischief but through those years parted from them, I could feel their love to guide me back to them when I finished being a State Ward.
Foster Grandmother praying till the day she died for news of William, he never came home.
