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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

to wonder when 'baby' became a proper noun?

30 replies

lastnightIwenttoManderley · 08/08/2014 06:53

Incredibly trivial but...

Over recent months I've heard and read much more about 'you and baby' 'give baby xyz' 'baby needs'. Not your baby, not the baby, not a baby. Just baby.

For reasons i cant explain it really grates on me especially when said in the irritating and patronising 'smiley' voice by the woman on a spotify advert. Is this a new thing?

OP posts:
fatowl · 08/08/2014 06:56

It's not new, dd is 20 and HVs said it then.
Grates the hell out of me too-totally agree with you

They say it on Call the Midwife

FitzgeraldProtagonist · 08/08/2014 06:59

Dirty dancing. Although her name was Baby, so maybe that doesn't count.

HappyAgainOneDay · 08/08/2014 07:01

The baby was called Baby in Upstairs Downstairs by the nanny (the one that was sacked) until it was christened. It was a way of referring to the infant in 'olden' days.

Delphiniumsblue · 08/08/2014 07:36

I think it is nothing new.

PiperRose · 08/08/2014 08:35

Nope, not new HV's have been saying it for years, plus it will often be used if 'Baby' doesn't have a first name yet.

Andrewofgg · 08/08/2014 08:39

I've seen it in Charles Dickens!

MCSpammer · 08/08/2014 08:46

This really annoys me too! Grr

Why can't people say YOUR baby or even THE baby?

I love my MIL but when she used to say 'I'll take baby for you' I wanted to scream at her Blush

Double Grr!!! It sounds so, well, wet.

MintyChops · 08/08/2014 08:46

I find it really irritating too, OP.

bedraggledmumoftwo · 08/08/2014 08:48

Pattacake nursery rhyme- mark it with b and put it in the oven for baby and me.

nothing new!

Fairylea · 08/08/2014 08:49

I absolutely hate it too. But it's not a new thing at all.

Mmeh · 08/08/2014 08:51

Totally agree, it irritates the hell out of me. Thankfully it's not something I hear a lot in real life but it does make me inordinately judged when I do.

Mmeh · 08/08/2014 08:52

Judgey I meant. Damn dictatorial autocorrect!!

dexter73 · 08/08/2014 08:54

I think of it as being very old-fashioned, say from the 1940's to 50's.

UriGeller · 08/08/2014 08:54

Its rather old fashioned isn't it? Midwives have always said it. Like they call you "mum" too.

"Let's hand baby to mum and then we'll pop him on the scales" aaaagh!

DilysMoon · 08/08/2014 09:08

'The' baby grates on me equally, it's a person not an object call it by its name!!

myotherusernameisbetter · 08/08/2014 09:10

Meh. I still call called my son baby boy X (insert surname) for a long time as that was his name when in the hospital (and for a while afterwards)

myotherusernameisbetter · 08/08/2014 09:11

...might have to stop soon though as he is nearly 13 and bigger than me :o

LynetteScavo · 08/08/2014 09:22

I don't find it anywhere near as irritating as "how are we today?"

We????

Mumoftwoyoungkids · 08/08/2014 09:29

My dad moans about this from when I was a baby. I'm 34. Grin

It doesn't bother me if you talk to the baby and call them baby "hello baby" - we had to call ds "baby" or "baby boy" for the first 48 hours of his life while we tried to find a name for him but I'm not keen when people refer to them as baby in the third person "when Baby is awake" etc - I much prefer "when the baby is awake".

Scrounger · 08/08/2014 09:32

This also irritates me, have you fed baby? let me have baby? Don't get me started on bot-bot.

BreakingDad77 · 08/08/2014 09:43

LOL thank god, thought it was just me that found it odd.

MrRabbitsUtopia · 08/08/2014 10:03

I also hate 'the baby' my MIL will ask on the phone 'when can I come and see the baby?' ... She's 18 months and has a name!!

I also hate being called mum, although I can appreciate its hard to learn two sets of names in a baby group. I would so much rather be called by my first name, especially when it's a one to one situation and my name is on the notes in front of the midwife/doctor/Hv.

LeezieLindsay · 09/08/2014 20:00

Re Dirty Dancing, Baby was actually Frances.
Watching it with my mum she told me she'd been called "Baby" until she was about 5, when she decided not to answer to that as a name anymore.

lbsjob87 · 10/08/2014 02:41

That annoys the hell out of me too. And "you must be Mum" etc. No, I am this baby's mum, but that's not my actual name.
It is also only possible to say these things in the most patronising voice they can muster.

lettertoherms · 10/08/2014 02:54

It's not new, and I don't find it irritating at all. I find the baby horrible, it's like you're treating a tiny human as an object.