In the following sentence:
You can start with carrying at any age of the child.
I'm not talking about a specific child but the indefinite article sounds awful to me.
Which one is better?
The same problem with this sentence:
The relationship between the mother and her child already starts in
pregnancy.
The word mother sounds to me with the definite article better, but also I'm not talking about a specific mother.
Best Answer
As you guess, the use of the definite article with nouns that carry some kind of emotional attachment (like child or mother) sounds a little impersonal. Actually this is the intended nuance. The definite article removes the emotional attachment, allowing the speaker to talk as an unaffected observer:
Of course, it's not always this dramatic, and as the reader you may still feel some kind of emotional response, in the appropriate context.
This kind of thing is common in scientific writing where "the subjects" of the study are meant to be observed and measured impartially and objectively. In this context there is no negative connotation of "the mother" or "the child". It's merely a statement that expresses certain facts.