Do the children ever imitate your "serious" voice? (lighthearted)

[letsgomaths]

Not necessarily just after you've used it, but at other times?

I used to do it a lot. If I needed to persuade my brother of something, I'd imitate my parents' stern voice. I'd also do it if my mum broke one of her own rules ("wait for the green man", or "serve the guests first"). My brother also did it often after he'd learned from a punishment: he'd piously recite whatever rule he'd just learned.

Yes I hear my 8yr old daughter doing it to her 5yr old brother sometimes, she is very bossy!

My 6yo has parroted out a worryingly good imitation

I have a knack for saying the same thing as my mother, in perfectly sychronised stereo. The curious part is that I didn't live with her long into my childhood, so there is something innate rather than habit and familiarity.

My 3 year old wagged her finger and said "what on earth do you think you're doing?!" To me when I was changing her bedsheets. It wasn't my voice it sounded like but my mother's! I have turned in to my mother without even noticing!

My ds 11 is currently practicing my voice.
My ds 15 is just sarcasm personified.
I admit I stooped to his level last night and chased him wearing a washing basket and brandishing 2 ladles I had slotted through the plastic sides..
I appreciate you had it be there...

He screamed and ran down the passage!!

My dd talks like me to her dolls...."l am not happy with you" "just give me 2 mins peace" "in a sec....I said wait a sec" she can go on for ages moaning at the dolls in my serious voice. Its cringe when she does it when my family is round they think its hilarious

My 2 year old says 'listen to me', and 'we don't do that' to her dolls/ baby sister all the time. The most embarrassing one is when she shouts my dhs name and sounds really stern and annoyed instead of calling Daddy.

Ds2 talking to his trains the other day frowned and very seriously said " oh for goodness sake that is enough now"

DP wet himself laughing and pointed out it was terrifying there were now two of me

Not sure what Thomas and percy were doing to be told off but apparently a good talking to solved the issue

Yes 🤦‍♀️

My 3 year old tells off my 5 year old in a disturbingly accurate imitation of me.

When I hear bossing each around I do think "crikey, that's uncomfortably familiar"...

My brother and I had a Lego ghost, with the imaginative name of Ghostie, who was a bit like God, overseeing the good and not so good citizens of Legoland. In our games, this "Ghostie" frequently took on a parental voice, saying things like "why did we put you in prison?".

My brother was almost delighted when he had to wear glasses at the age of seven - it took his imitations of parents and teachers to new levels!

@Winterdaysarehere The walking laundry basket made me laugh so much!

Even now, my mum sighs "you're so strict....", when I tell her to ask me one question at a time when I'm helping her with her iPad or similar.

This was the same mum who had one word to describe hearing that my year 4 teacher in waiting was very strict: "EXCELLENT!!!"

DD once got annoyed that I wasn't giving the game we were playing my full attention because I was also taking to DH. She put her hand on my shoulder and leaned her face in and told me in a gentle low voice, "you just need to concentrate on this now".

It was so weird to be on the receiving end of my parenting techniques!

Another thing my brother used to do when were little enough to have baths together: he'd sit up on the back end of the bath, saying "I am the teacher, you are the baby...".

And at the same age, when we visited a posh school (out of school hours) run by a headmistress friend of my mum's, our favourite parts of the day were standing in the wood-panelled assembly hall pretending to be the headmistress giving the orders, and also playing with the "traffic lights" on the head's office door, which said "engaged", "wait", "enter".

Is your brother a teacher now @letsgomaths?!

Mine do, especially the older one. I get "I am very cross with you right now!" But as this is better than being called a silly pooey Mummy, I can live with it.

They both have caught my tone of voice for " come on! Hurry up!" Probably due to me saying it so many times.

Yes, DS is almost 4 and will quite often tell me "if you don't do x by the time I count to three, you'll go on the step" etc. Usually in response to me telling him off first!

Yep, I get "I've told you two times already" and "Are you listening to me?".

Worst was when I was 36 weeks pregnant, he was 21 months and going through a phase of long night wakings and DH was working away. He woke around 2 and at 5.30 was still wide awake. I'd started sobbing with tiredness and frustration and he sat up calmly in his cot and said, "Mummy just calm down".

My DD doesn't but I hear her CMs voice come out of her all the time when she's playing pretend with her dolls.
The CM is much more strict than me and being strict is more fun when playing.

My 3 year old has started doing this with air quotations I have to try not to giggle

My two year old says "don't do that" in a low sarcastic voice. It's almost offensive 😁

@Bigbelliedseahorse He's not a teacher, but he loves theatre, especially playing "bossy" roles. In a school play, he delivered the line "I am always right" with total perfection.

I also frequently used the phrase "woe betide you", which I'd heard not from parents or teachers, but from the Sorcerer's Apprentice. "You must keep my cauldron filled to the brim, and woe betide you if I find it empty!"

This wasn't my finest primary school moment, but I remember this dialogue between my teacher and me when I was six. This was in the 1980's:
Teacher (yanking me by the arm): "Will you pay attention!"
Me (with great dignity): "Stop pulling my nice jumper."
Teacher (after a surprised pause): "I was not pulling your nice jumper, I was just trying to get you to listen..."
Seeing that other children were often sent to the head for rudeness, including one boy who replied "yes sir" to a female teacher's order, I think I was lucky to get away with that.