How to talk about your family/parents without saying if it&#39;s your Mother or Father specifically? Any legal issues for writing about your parent(s)?
<p><em>Reformulated in other's words (thank you commenters, mods please preserve the comments as originally posted so you can read the source), my question is:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>(A) Is referring to a parent specifically defamation?</strong></li>
<li><strong>(B) Is defaming an ambiguously defined parent still defamation?</strong></li>
<li><strong>(C) Would it be a problem to talk about your parents?</strong></li>
<li><strong>(D) Why would that be defamation to talk about your parents?</strong></li>
<li><strong>(E) Do lawyers use ambiguous terms such as &quot;a family member&quot; mostly when the detail is irrelevant or they don't know enough about the matter they assess or litigate? Will they look ridiculous if they limit themselves to &quot;family member&quot; in legal cases?</strong></li>
</ul>
<p><em>In my own words, as originally asked with my anecdote (which led to the great reformulations), same meaning as (A) to (E) before:</em></p>
<p>I'm an American who at a French youth-in-difficulty shelter in Montreal was invited to talk to and ask the in-shelter Free Legal Aid Clinic with English law students from McGill University my title question, after I had asked before to a counselor the title question.</p>
<p>Specifically of course defamation (or libel, slander, etc, may be especially valid if they will still be living too) are legitimate legal issues (besides social/psychological issues) in not wanting to express the words Mom/Dad/Mother/Father (and not to mention their name[s]) at will, though I've been told the &quot;truth&quot; of the matter gives creedance/freedom if to fair use of the words (yet proof of family issues can vary, I could not exactly ask a publisher to clear and vet, <strong>basically speaking about 'family with fact' when encountering emotional/psychological/verbal issues is daunting/troubling</strong> [the words Mom/Dad remain important as much as sounding implicatingly litigatable {even the hint/whiff of knowing who/which parent can be drastic}, and <strong>e.g. verbal abuse is not readily valued verbatim for &quot;truth&quot;/fact</strong>]), I still know and worry the words are triggering and have long suffered to speak and talk about family given the variables said.</p>
<p>I feel (from personal experience) there is a legal grey area where speaking about parent(s) specifically is judged somewhat and would appreciate clarification if there is any legal precedent (for other written works, the general signal I read is to avoid real names mostly, how normally you may be required to fictionalize characters, but I find that difficult if the names are Mom/Dad—is that normal and because of the law?), and if my being younger or older mattered (being 17 or 18 matters if naming parents?) for using the words &quot;Mother&quot; and &quot;Father&quot; openly, say with my own public social media network writing for example if I mention family and or family issues.</p>
<p>Given the nature of how I was referred by my counselor/intervenor/social worker to Legal Aid for the title of my question (almost the exact words I asked originally), I figured appropriate to ask here for a second opinion. Relevant US/CA/international law or precedent/examples would be good to start first with.</p>
<p><em>It may help to remind readers the title question is written clearly, even if the <strong>anecdote of my real, detailed experience is clearly difficult for some people to relate</strong>, so to repeat:</em></p>
<ul>
<li><strong>(F) How do you talk about your family/parents without saying if it's your Mother or Father specifically? Any legal issues for writing about your parent(s)?</strong></li>
<li><strong>(G) Are there any legal issues for writing about your parent(s)?</strong></li>
</ul>

<blockquote>
<p>Any legal issues for writing about your parent(s)?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>No. Furthermore, the <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/56985/how-to-talk-about-your-family-parents-without-saying-if-its-your-mother-or-fath/56986#56986">answer</a> you got from the Free Legal Aid Clinic is wrong. There is no need for pseudonyms or ambiguities such as &quot;<em>a family member</em>&quot;. As long as your <em>statements of fact</em> are truthful, identifying actual individuals in your narrative is lawful (this applies to US as well as Canada defamation law).</p>
<p>A word of caution, though: Your post reflects deficiencies in how you explain yourself. This has more to do with your way of articulating ideas than the possibility that English might not be your first language. Although it is palpable from your post that you do not intend to defame someone, reading it raises some concern that you might inadvertently convey a defamatory falsehood when you talk about matters which are understandably sensitive. Knowing how to transmit your message clearly and accurately is far more important --and safer from a legal standpoint-- than avoiding ironic acronyms such as &quot;<em>A m o m f</em>&quot;.</p>

defamation family