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Alang said she overheard her daughter's teacher tell students on several occasions to get help from their \"mom or dad.\"

Alang, who is a single mother and gay, said the comment bothered her.

\"My daughter was also in a foster home for several years and has a sibling in a group home so there's no parent present at all,\" she told \"Good Morning America. \"All these things were going through my head.\"

She also recalled her own childhood. Alang was raised by a single mother and while she never articulated it before, teachers referring to \"dads\" and having students make Father's Day cards hurt her.

While Alang was open to \"parent or guardian,\" she now thinks there's something better: Grown-ups can take the place of moms, dads or guardian, she said.

Author and activist Glennon Doyle agreed, posting that \"grown up\" was the term she used when she was a classroom teacher.

View this post on Instagram

To all the heroes who spend their time, energy, and talent on children: Might you consider replacing references to “your mom and dad” to “your grown- ups”? That little language difference signals to little ones that all families are real and important and should be honored. That little difference can make a child feel celebrated instead of othered. Thank you, on behalf of all us Untamed families :) Thank you for loving our babies!!! Love, G #UntamedLanguage #UntamedFamilies Thank you, Sirry Alang, PhD (@ProfAlang on Twitter) for this conversation.

A post shared by Glennon Doyle (@glennondoyle) on Sep 9, 2020 at 2:00pm PDT

Still, said Alang, it's not perfect. It doesn't account for older siblings taking care of younger ones, for example. But it's a stop in the right direction in terms of inclusive language.

The comments on her tweet have been \"overwhelmingly positive,\" she said. But she did face some criticism from those who think teachers have too much on their plate already.

\"Everyone has a lot going on,\" she said. \"But I'm more worried about the kids who feel excluded.\"

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