wish my friend would talk normally to her baby

[gruffalo5]

Ok, probably sound like a right grumpy moo but it's really beginning to bug me! My good friend of many years has a ds and she always talks to him in baby talk (very high, sing-song voice, made up words) ALL the time. He's 14months now and I thought it might be easing a bit but it's not. I have three dd and appreciate we all coo at them at times(esp when tiny) but this is like she's gone a bit batty. AIBU to find this so irksome?

But baby talk IS good for speech development!

I had to laugh at a conversation I heard between Mother and child as the child went into Nursery one day. It went something like this....

"Ok Mummy's going tattas now...pick you up later and we'll go to Auny Nat Nats for some Lom Lom and Bic Bics"

I don't know why it made me laugh..but it was like she was teaching her kid to become bi lingual in Alien speak or something

my neice looked at me sharply once when i was talking to my baby in 'motherese' - i think she was horrified. but if anybody said anything to me about it I would be absolutely gobsmacked, deeply insulted, and the relationship/friendship would stop in its tracks. who do you (or anybody) think they are to dictate how you talk to your baby (unless it's abusive of course)? gordon bennet pointydog - it is a natural 'love' language, the sounds convey tremendous warmth and the baby practically melts when you use it. dd is now an actor - no problems on the language front.

people who don't like baby talk are a little bit frightened of small children. They prefer to belt through that stage, and get the child rational and coherant as soon as possible

I feel your second comment, coldtits was a bit unfair. Of course I talk to my dds in a loving way and this was meant to be a light-hearted post. Like I said we all generally(as do I) have times when we talk like this with the little 'uns but my point is that it's ALL the time which I guess I just find a bit hard-going and wondered if I as alone in feeling like this.

I have no knowledge about what helps/doesnt help child's speech my point was just AIBU that it makes me cringe.

Slightly off topic gruffalo but I cringe even more when Husbands and Wives talk to each other in baby talk. My mate and her Husband can actually turn my stomach at times Lol.

bravo coldtits

i never used 'baby' words like din-dins etc - always pretty strict about that - but the language was about SOUNDS, no relation at all to the english language. musical if you like, lilting, loving, warm.

have to agree about the husband and wives 'baby' talk [puke]. but would NEVER say anything. NOMB

motherese is proven to be essential part of language acquisition - it's seen in virtually all cultures I believe, and even children do it naturally.

I know it's a wiki link but it's been a few years since I studied it, so can't remember refs, - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_talk

I know it's a bit irritating but children love it!