Draw the line

Draw the line

“Draw the line.”

This is an idiom. When someone says they “draw the line” at something, it means they set a limit or boundary that they don’t want to cross. It’s like saying, “This is as far as I will go, no farther.” We often use this expression when we are talking about what we are willing or not willing to accept or tolerate. And when we say “draw the line,” we say: this is what I won’t accept.

“I draw the line at X” means, “I’ll accept something, but I won’t accept X.”

This is a great term to use when you’re in some kind of negotiation. In a negotiation, there’s give-and-take. Each side wants a little something, right? And to get something, you have to give something up. The question is always, “how much do you give up?” Or, “where do you draw the line?”

Let’s start with a very modern example. How much screen time should kids get? I have no idea. I don’t have kids and the term “screen time” was not a thing when I was growing up. But today, parents have to draw the line somewhere. It’s probably unrealistic to expect kids not to watch TV, YouTube, or be on social media. But it’s not healthy for kids to be glued to their devices, either . So parents have to draw the line somewhere. Parents have to say, “I’ll accept this much, but no more.”

Some parents draw the line at social media. They don’t want kids on apps like Instagram, where there are few protections for minors . Other parents will draw the line at night: after a certain time, screens have to be off. There are a lot of controls, too, that let parents draw the line at a number of hours per day. Two hours, maybe three hours per day. Every parent has to draw the line somewhere.

How are we doing on our new year’s resolutions ? If you’re trying to eat a healthy diet in the new year, you have to decide what restrictions you can live with. This is like a negotiation with yourself, right? You might say, “I’ll cut down on red meat and ultra-processed carbs, but I draw the line at chocolate.”

That means, I’ll accept less red meat; I’ll accept fewer processed carbs. But I must have my chocolate. I’ll go this far, but no farther. If I draw the line at chocolate, then that means I don’t accept eliminating chocolate from my diet. And if you draw the line there, then you’re in good company, because that’s where I’d draw the line too.

You can use this expression in the workplace too, whenever there is a negotiation. It’s hard to set boundaries these days, especially if you have to deal with a lot of e-mail, Slack notifications, Teams messages, or calls with colleagues in other time zones. But you have to draw the line somewhere. Here’s what you might say. “I’ll work at night occasionally, but I draw the line at working on Sundays.” That means, you’re willing to accept working sometimes at night, but you are not willing to accept work on Sundays.

Have you been to London? If so, you might have seen pedicabs. These are bicycle rickshaws that take tourists and partygoers around SoHo and the West End . Due to a quirk in London’s taxi laws, the pedicabs operate without any type of regulation—not on safety, not on fares, nothing. It’s a free-for-all . But now the government wants to regulate the pedicabs.

Pedicab drivers welcome some reforms. They don’t mind being licensed or passing a background check, many of them. But they draw the line at fixed prices. Normal taxis, for example, have fixed prices. Pedicab drivers charge whatever they want—whatever they can coax out of a drunk tourist. But the government has proposed setting pedicab fares just like taxi fares.

That’s something the pedicab drivers don’t want and they won’t accept. They’ll accept new rules around licensing, but they draw the line at fixed prices. They fear the prices will be set too low for them to make a living.

See you next time!

And that’s all for us here at Plain English, already early February 2024. You guys—if you follow American football—you know who’s in the Super Bowl. I don’t know because I’m recording this in mid-January. But the Super Bowl is this Sunday, February 11 in Las Vegas, 6:30 p.m. New York time. Usher is the halftime performer.

We’ll see how it goes. The last few Super Bowls have been good games. I’ll be watching here—but not betting. I enjoy sports, I watch them, I follow the players, but I draw the line at betting on sports . There’s just no way to come out ahead unless you have far better information than everyone else…and I do not. So I don’t bet. I sit back and enjoy the game without any financial stake.

We’ll be back on Monday. See you then.