Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Protection built in.

Meet the Other Phone.
Protection built in.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to never use 'baby talk'

87 replies

tootiredtomakeupagoodname · 23/08/2011 16:06

At swimming today with DS's. The woman in the next cubicle was getting her DD changed and saying things like "oh the wee bubba wubba, just you waiting till mummy gets you all cosy tosy in this fluffy wuffy towel".

My teeth are still itching, I have never spoken to my DS's like this - are they missing out on something?

OP posts:
Original poster
tootiredtomakeupagoodname · 23/08/2011 16:18

cocoachannel I would say she was around 18 months in one of those floaty jackets so not under 1.

Lynette you are right I would not say hello DS in the same tone as I would my boss, but I do not say hello gawjus wajus Smile

I was just amazed as I always thought it was a bit of a piss take, DS1 is 3.8 and no one has never spoken to him like this Blush

OP posts:
MightyQuim · 23/08/2011 16:19

I think a bit of it does no harm and having your own special words for things can be quite bonding BUT it can be taken too far particularly with older kids. DD fell over in Tesco the other week and got a massive bump on her head that swelled up like a cricket ball. I took her down to the hospital to get looked over and the nurse who examined her was all 'oh dearie weary have we had a little bumpikins?' etc. DD is 4 and was looking at me like the man was insane. Then when he was examining her he asked if she could feel 'poorly sores???' in her head. He needed subtitles it was that bad.

Birdsgottafly · 23/08/2011 16:20

I would rather parents do this than what they subject their DC's to, where i live and what i grew up with.

I used 'baby speak' occassionally to mine, i speak to my pets in 'baby speak', whats it got to do with anyone else? It isn't damaging them.

Kytti · 23/08/2011 16:20

... although I hastily add that a dummy is a DUMMY not a 'doe-doe', and TAR is something you put on roads. Wink

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 23/08/2011 16:20

Pag having seen your posts on another thread recently, I TOTALLY understand that it can be a great help with children with speech delay. I really didn't before.

But, although DS did have a speech delay due to dreadful glue ear, I was advised back then (he's 15 in two weeks) to just sound out worsd clearly and specifically for him. If anything, saying car or train etc repeatedly did help him to recognise words more easily. It is thought that until he was five (and had the first of his ops) that he learnt to speak (albeit understood by DD1 more than anyone) by lipreading - which makes me question how choo choo/fluffy wuffy/doggy etc would have been any help to him.

Please, please do correct me if I am wrong here. I wonder if thinking has changed over the years? DS still called a car a tar until he was 5½, along with pretty much any word beginning with C which, in his head, started with a T.

ll31 · 23/08/2011 16:20

think there/s absolutely nohting wrong with that - talking to children is whats important - would be guessing probably every mother has spoken like that to some extent...

MightyQuim · 23/08/2011 16:21

But on the other hand my mum used to scold me for 'letting' dd use words like choo choo instead of train etc. I figured that choo choo is easier to say than train and by the time she could say train she could say choo choo AND train. She was talking ridiculously early so I don't think it held her back.

upahill · 23/08/2011 16:22

YABU and YANBU!!

Generally speaking I didn't use made up words and words like Gee Gee for horse but maybe after a bath and we would be playing I would say something like the other women did in a playful way.
I used to love playing 'this little piggy' and then get silly with words then.

I never had a full conversation about bickie wicks and ju wu (biscuits and juice) like some of my friends had.

VelvetSnow · 23/08/2011 16:22

At the moment it doesn't matter what I'm saying to dd, as long as my words are soothing and my face is animated.

I love the different reactions I get from her.

Nothing wrong with baby talk - when it is in fact a baby you're talking to IMO

TheSmallClanger · 23/08/2011 16:22

We call huge bruises that swell up "eggs". It isn't even babytalk, it comes from DH's friends. I'm glad we never had to explain that in the hospital - "I got a big EGG on my head when I fell over!" does sound very strange.

Pamplemoussse · 23/08/2011 16:25

yy egg on head

also we have barked shins in our faaaaaaaamily Hmm

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 23/08/2011 16:25

TheSmallClanger I thought just about everyone called them 'eggs' - we have certainly had our fair share of them over the years. In fact I have a rather spectacular one on my forehead right now after walking straight into the door frame last night

MrsDBouquet · 23/08/2011 16:25

Rock

Pissed again ? Wink

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 23/08/2011 16:26

Barked shins? What be they? I like that phrase...

TobyLeWolef · 23/08/2011 16:27

Ugh. Baby talk drives me insane. I had to have words several times with my ex-MIL after my son started asking me for an "eggy-peggy" for his breakfast Hmm

He was almost 2 and had started talking in proper, complete sentences at 15 months. I have never baby-talked my children. They both talked very early and were very easily understood by everyone because they didn't use made-up words for things.

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 23/08/2011 16:27

Fark off! I wish. No. Just wasn't looking where I was going. Small annoying and extremely irksome urchin thought it hilarious. brat

Pagwatch · 23/08/2011 16:28

Tootired - you should say hello gawjus wagjus . See if you get a pay rise or the sack or maybe a date Grin

Hey Rock. Yes. Same here actually. I needed to clip ds2s language a bit. Keep it simple iyswim, not flowery distracting words so he could get exactly what I meant. Your ds probably would have had the same advice which I think would still be true now.
Baby talk was advised for dd to help her babble and get the hang of communicating as pre-words. Obviously having her after ds2 we were keen to get her as engaged as possible to fend off potential problems. As it happened she never shuts up.

MrsDBouquet · 23/08/2011 16:29

OK, Rock I believe you.

So B was laughing herself silly while Mummy was effing ?

I hate banging my head. It is one of those things guaranteed to make me very Angry. Mainly because it hurts.

Original poster
tootiredtomakeupagoodname · 23/08/2011 16:30

Pag your post is interesting, I have a friend who's DS (now 6) had severe speech delay - no one except his mum could make out a word he said not even his DF Sad they were advised to speak clearly and talk to him as they would an adult to correct his speech, although they were told he was one of the worst cases they had ever seen and there multiple causes for his speech difficulties so perhaps depends on area and causes/diagnosis?

OP posts:
Original poster
tootiredtomakeupagoodname · 23/08/2011 16:32

cross post Pag sorry friend's DS was way past the babbly stage he was almost 3 before he was referred to SALT

OP posts:
lesley33 · 23/08/2011 16:32

When I had my DC it was fashionable amongst many middle class mums to say they wouldn't talk to their babies/toddlers in a baby voice and using babyish language. As a result of this fashion I did a lot of reading on this, particularly into research on the issue.

Talking to babies and toddlers in this way is very very good for their speech development. Children generally will learn to speak faster than if spoken to with the same tone and words as you would speak to an adult.

There are lots of theories about why this should be the case. But one point the research made is that mums all over the world talk to their babies in this way.

So YANBU to find it irritating. YABVU though to condemn it.

Red2011 · 23/08/2011 16:36

I never do baby talk, and hopefully never will! I see no point in learning something and then having to unlearn it. Bysie wysie!!

Pagwatch · 23/08/2011 16:37

I have to say though if you combine baby talk with overly loud parenting and competitive parenting you end up with the woman I wanted to kill a few weeks ago

msbuggywinkle · 23/08/2011 16:39

My Grandparents still refer to lap-laps (apples) when talking to each other!

I do use baby talk, it just comes out. Then gradually dies out as they get better at speaking so has been gone before each of the DDs were 2. Well, I do it occasionally to annoy DD1.

RockStockAndTwoOpenBottles · 23/08/2011 16:39

MrsDB (are you moving up in the world or something Wink ) - yes she was. Bloody hysterically at that.

Pag bummer! Yes, my DD3 never shuts up either. Funnily enough I feel that her speech IS delayed a bit, but I put that more down to the fact that my older three are 15, 17 and 18 (over the next 6 weeks) and she is 2 and it's just her and me most of the time.

I am wondering whether she may have a touch of glue ear as well (does it run in families? Two out of the older three had it) and will get her checked out once we move back to the UK next month. DS we knew about early on (he was very very prem so was in and out of hospital anyway), but she seems to be showing similar signs to the others.

I, personally, won't talk to her in 'motherese' as it's not for me, but it is certainly hard wrk trying to understand her at times. Having said that, one she has a word sussed, i.e. I understand something, she will say it a gazillion bloody times to let me know she's got it!

She calls a blanket a frap frap Confused yet when I jokingly said Timbuktu she said it perfectly.

Swipe left for the next trending thread