To think that parents sound stupid when they use baby talk?

[Sallystyle]

I was out walking my dog and a mother stopped me so her nursery age child could look at my "woo woo" "Look at the cutey woo woo"

It's a dog not a bloody cutey woo woo!

I admit that I might be more easily annoyed today because I have an infection in my gum and didn't sleep.

YABU. None of your bloody business how people talk to their kids.

my friend makes her baby talk like a ventriloquist doll. in a very annoying cutesy voice. i hate it. especially when i get sucked into a discussion

We still call fire engine nee naas and my dcs are doing gcses.
And baa lambs.

I have to laugh at it being none of my business. Of course it isn't, but since when has that stopped anyone being annoyed by something?

It's not like I asked her to stop or told her my opinion.

yabu - babies love baby goo goo stuff and young children love playing with silly words and sounds. It might have been a private little joke between them, or it might just be that she was feeling silly.. or any number of reasons.

Any speech to your child - correct or not - is a good thing.

Its one thing to speak to your baby in motherese, but a totally different thing when they are old enough to walk and talk themselves.

I worry more about the parents who don't talk to their children though.

Fine. But it's hard to think of anything more private or harmless than the way people communicate with their kids. If you are going to post something so judgy on a topic this trivial you should be prepared that people may raise the off eyebrow.

Odd eyebrow even

I have an 18 MO who often gets mistaken as a 3 YO.

YABU.

I feel your pain, Smudging. Ds3 gets really narked if I call him my baby. But I don't see why I should stop, just because he is nearly 16!

I think it is meant to be something that we do naturally in response to babies - as they respond to higher pitch singy tones.

I use lots of weird/babyish words for things to my 3 year old DD - PJ's - 'jimmy jamsters', knickers - 'knicky knacky noos', nappy - 'nap nap', milk 'milkies', bed time 'night night time'...the list is endless. She likes/uses those words and it's just our little language. I'm sure this won't be still going on when she's 10 but at three or four it's fine IMO.

YAnBU. I do it in the vicinity of my home. I wouldn't dare do it outside my four walls, how embarrassing.

DM still calls windmills "yumm-bahs" when talking to me. I'm 23

The bottom line for me is that you do what works in your own family - you use words and tones of voice that the children respond to, and you use 'in jokes' too, and you shouldn't give a bugger if anyone else thinks you sound stupid - frankly it does them no harm, so why should they worry?