To think you should speak to a baby with the same respect as you would an adult?

[jungandeasilyfreudened]

Went to visit delightful PILs this week. One of them said to our 3 month old 'look at your sticky out ears ha ha' and defended the comment as the baby 'couldn't understand' what was being said. Surely whether the baby understands or not isn't actually the point, is it?

Yep, like that book of sweary lullabies some American father wrote that was published to great acclaim last year (sort of 'Just fucking go to sleep' type thing). It was all supposed to be really hilarious, I thought it was vile.

jung (great username, btw!), I do agree with you. And even if the baby doesn't understand what your PIL said, the you and your partner did. It was a rude and unnecessary thing to say.

I think there is something deeply wonderful about bestowing these loving insults on a babies,

Some babies do have, 'legs of a thousand bottoms'', to not comment on that wonder, and enjoy the few short moments that it lasts , would be a sadly missed opportunity,

Anyway it will give you something to smile to yourself about when they are teenagers, it helps you not to kill them.

"Ooh, what lovely squishy thighs you have." Ok, IMHO.
"Look at your sticky out ears, haha." Not ok, IMHO.

don't allow your child to be called negative names.

My DD does really stinky trumps. I tell her she's got the stinkiest monkey bum in the whole world. She loves it (she's three). I wouldn't say that to an adult who let on rip nor would I say it to her when she's say 8 (hoping the random trumping gets a bit better by then :) ).

piglet now how did you make the leap from speaking with respect to not being able to coo over babies?

OP, does your baby have sticky out ears though? My son does, we can talk about it but how dare anyone else point it out, that's just rude.

YANBU though in feeling that the person who said this was lacking in social manners and shouldn't have said it.

Members of the family, though.

My nan said to ds "Oh look at your stork mark, don't worry, we'll still love you poppet"