To think my friend is being way to serious about this?

[SunshineDaisiesButterMellow]

Dd is 5 and can't get the word ' animal' right. She says aminal.
I find it cute and do correct her but gently remind her and she has a think about it and when she says it slowly she gets it right.
But like I said I find it cute and am guessing she will grow out of it.

Df was round earlier and dd mentioned something about animals but said it the wrong way and df told her she said it wrong but dd wasn't really listening as she was running about with the puppy.
Anyway df had a bit of a go at me about how can I let her talk like that kids will make fun of her , do I not care? You get the picture.
I told her to lighten up dd would be fine and changed the subject. But when she left she was still moody.

Aibu to think she's a kid she'll grow out of it?

Ms and Ns can be tricky - just realised last week that I have always said [sea] 'anemone' incorrectly as 'anenome' - I'm in my 40's.

I couldn't say ridiculous until I was about 11. It can make you worse when people keep telling you that you are wrong.

My sister is called Melanie and it is amazing how many kids call her Menalie

The only word we corrected for DS1 was his constant mispronunciation of popcorn (he called it cock porn)

We let him keep the Bosghetti and Thomas the Tanken-engine though, until he was about 8

I'm 42 and I can't say anesthetist

I don't think I can spell it either

I can't say mnemonic. Bit of a problem when teaching study skills!
Any chance your friend could come and sort it out for me? I'm only 43!

Three I got wrong:
Underella (well you stood under them lol)
Mary and Jophes and hopistal. I now speak correctly and regularly do presentations at a high level. I was not allowed to use baby language though. I remember saying 'there's a choo-choo!' And being told there is no such thing it is a train when I was very young. Same for baa-baa, moo-moo etc-I had to say correct animal name.

Your friend is being over the top.

As a child I said hynena's for hyena's. I grew out of it by the time I was about 5/6.

Private conversations are littered with funny little mispronunciations from children when they were young (even though they are all now grown).
I still say Maneenas, Pusgetti and another (from a friend's child who is now in his early 20s) nuts and crankies for nooks and crannies. It made me crack up (silently, of course, not wishing to make him feel silly) but now I still use it in my head when searching for something that's been missing. "I've looked in all the nuts and crankies and still can't find it".

Makes me inwardly chuckle

I apparently used to call blancmange 'bonge'. I can't help but wonder how much of the pink stuff we ate for this to become a memorable thing!!

I was told by a speech therapist that you aren't meant to tell the child that they got it wrong. What you do is say the word correctly and eventually the child will begin to say it properly.

Constantly being told that they got it wrong will have a negative effect on the child.

She's a loon. Ignore!

My Dd used to come out with the cutest things, "freech" for reach, and "egglow" for elbow, for eg. We still occasionally use them at home, it makes DH and I

We liked looking of pictures of endephants in our house. And I'd completely forgotten until we watched a video of her doing an animal jigsaw with DH. "It's a endephant, Daddy".

My DD spent most of Halloween saying 'sekleton' rather than skeleton. I think it's adorable when children get words wrong

Dd2 says automacally (automatically) and has just started to say it properly! She's 8!!I'm quite sad when she says it properly!!

If she has lots and lots of consistent mispronounciations, and they dont keep on gradually disappearing over the next year, talk to school /gp about therapy to correct.

But for now, thmile, it thoundth adorable!

I can't say vanilla unless I think about it first - always comes out as vaninna. I also often say 'crips' instead of 'crisps' I'm 33. I survived school and college and uni.

My youngest DS couldn't pronounce his middle name when he was younger - always came out at Messiah!

DD1 says "egmagine" for imagine which we love. In dd2's world, daddy is a man and mummy is a muman.

I'm sure I read that "cute versions" to quote dh are healthy and contribute to feelings of family, because they usually become special to the family.

I used to say rice bippits for rice crispies and biccits for biscuits. I am 35 and well educated and say the correct words now. My parents, otoh, still use my toddler version!

I'm amazed to discover your friend has children, when I read the OP I assumed she couldn't have any experience of them. If she really thinks 5 year olds should have perfect pronunciation she's in cloud cuckoo land. I know grown adults who still say things like "lickle" and "hospickle", ffs.

This is addressed in one of the parenting courses being offered in lots of schools round our way. Just in case you want their advice, it is to repeat the word in your next sentence. You use the word correctly but you don't criticise their pronunciation. So you are right and df is wrong!

We still call the room with the washing machine etc. in "the tility room" because that's what DD always called it.

I don't think reversed letters at five is unusual at all.