To want to throttle women who talk their kids in REALLY LOUD VOICES

[bbird1]

in public for no apparent reason. It's just bloody annoying. Just pipe down ffs!

[Pagwatch]

Lyingwitch

Being the only person on the thread who has admitted to doing it ...
... I think threadworms is spot on.
I was feeling very out of my depth.
I was on a brief break from work where I had status and positive feedback all the time but was finding the ability to be a mother to a small baby quite elusive.

I wanted to be a good mum and maybe, in lieu of that, I could at least look like a good mum.

I think if you are confident in yourself and your ability you don't need to perform.

But the whole vomit in the mouth thing taught me that appearances don't matter.

[AC67]

Sadly I have to admit to this too ....but mainly because my ds has a selective deafness condition that requires me to repeat a number of times any given instruction - usually this ends in me speaking VERY loudly to get his attention - I know it is wrong and probably very irritating for everyone else but I don't know anyothr way to get his attention.

[kenobi]

Oh God. This thread has made me go all hot and itchy.

You know that scene at the end of Crocodile Dundee, where the blonde lady wants to tell Croc she loves him and a series of New York 'characters' shout her utterances down the platform to him?

Well, If I'd been there, they wouldn't have needed anyone else. Seriously, my voice is so clear and carrying they would have heard me honking from the next door tube station.

I have busily taken notes on this thread as I'm sure I'm one of these women albeit inadvertently - and how bloody embarrassing is that? So if you hear a woman in a playground in SW London talking extremely loudly and clearly to her toddler, either pity me, or tell me to STFU pipe down, either is fine.

[kenobi]

And my toddler is completely average and normal so I have no excuse.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

pagwatch... Yes, you had a baptism of fire there, didn't you. I will never forget your post.

Perhaps you're right, the 'over performing' parent might be new or a bit unsure of themselves. The rub though is that because the performance draws attention, it's not likely to be positive attention, and that could make the parent feel even less confident.

Appearances definitely don't matter, nobody in a supermarket is going to validate an over-performing parent other than to show their irritation.

[Miggsie]

I object to people who lecture their children in a booming voice on esoteric subjects that clearly the child doesn't give a monkey's about. If there is a clear conversation going on "mummy, what's that?" with appropriate responses etc I don't really care about the loudness.
"How many continents are there darling?" and other questions of that ilk or lecturing your 3 yo on cosmic string theory...that's show off, it really is.

[LyingWitchInTheWardrobe2726]

kenobi... Oh dear... but so funny.

I think the problem will resolve itself soon anyway... technology is so far advanced now and so available to all, that parents and toddlers will be able to text each other via a special 'parent/baby unit' that performs an effective and immediate translation of lessons and gurgles, so no more pretentious-parenting.

[Pagwatch]

Yes. You are right lying
I am sure it is self defeating. Like the self conscious person at a party who is so anxious about how they appear that they fail to engage with others at all - worrying about what they are saying rather than listening, so anxious to be liked that they don't try to draw out their companions. All producing the opposite effect from the one they desire

[kenobi]

LyingWitch - that's what the fools in The Apprentice should have done with their app!

I've found this thread really interesting, and once again (bless mumsnet) a reminder against judging others. Except for myself obviously. And about 50% of the other mums in my neck of the woods... Ah, SW6...

[gramercy]

"I like to think that if anyone has been (unfortunate enough0 to be trapped within earshot , that they might have learnt something themselves"

OMG!!! Not just performance parenting, but helping the rest of us thicko parents.

Let me remember the next time I'm subjected to loud poncey mum talk, to go and thank the parent profusely for informing me about (in the poster's case) the Miners' Strike and for showing up my dcs who were merely discussing the merits of the new X Factor judges.

[WhataWitch]

Seriously are Aunty Mable and pippin dead?

[Threadworm8]

Yes. An MNer caught Auntie Mabel loud-explaining milk-bottle manufacture to Pippin, and slaughtered them both where they stood.

[WhataWitch]

Did wonder how old they would be now when it was on last week, can remember watching it at school myself. Ah am gutted now :(

[TheMonster]

I wonder what the average temperature of urine is.

[kenobi]

It'd be blood temperature, wouldn't it?

That's the option I'd go for if it ever popped up as a question in Who Wants To Be A Millionaire. Which I hope it will.

[NellieForbush]

Pissing myself at Threadworm.

Seriously though. They're dead?

[geminigirl]

As far as i know just wee Pippin has passed to the big doggy kennel in the sky but isn't Auntie Mabel Jane in Eastenders mum now?

[Goblinchild]

Pippin is dead, there have been several Pippins apparently.
She's still going string according to Wikki.

'In September 2010, Baron appeared in a one-off television drama The Road to Coronation Street on BBC Four, about the early days of the British television soap opera Coronation Street. Baron played the actress Violet Carson who played Ena Sharples in the soap. Baron was nominated for the 2011 British Academy Television Award for Best Supporting Actress for this role.
From October 2010 to February 2011, Baron starred alongside Maureen Lipman and Roy Hudd in a West End production of When We Are Married by J B Priestley.'

[SaggyHairyArse]

I am not sure if I talk loudly but have a feeling I do. I have got a hearing problem which makes it hard to hear when there is a lot of background noise (i.e. in a supermarket), plus i've got two children with visual impairment and one who is just a nightmare!

I appreciate some over bearing sorts are a bit much but that might not always be the case.