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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

AIBU to talk to my child

64 replies

Chocoholicmonster · 07/12/2016 23:41

Walking down the road chatting to my newborn. Someone stopped me just to tell me how stupid I was because "the baby doesn't have a clue what I'm saying so social interaction is pointless".

I wasn't discussing current politics or world news with my newborn. Just idle chit chat. So am I stupid & being unreasonable to converse with my baby? Surely every parent 'chats' to their child so they learn their voice & feel somewhat comforted to know they have you near?

OP posts:

Nanny0gg · 08/12/2016 09:38

When I was had my DC many years ago, I remember one of the midwives talking to a group of very young mums telling them they had to talk to their babies, not just stand there holding them.

I thought it was quite sad really, I always thought it was an automatic 'thing' to chat away to babies.

However, there is a desperately irritating parent at our school who performance parents the entire time in a really really loud voice. 'Oh Tabitha, look at the orange, it's so round, that's called spherical, it grows on trees in Spain, the capital is madrid, but you already know that don't you Tabitha darling. Oh look, an avocado...' and on and on, it's truly awful.

But that's talking at not talking to.

taybert · 08/12/2016 09:45

I'm that "performance parent". I'm not doing it to be irritating, though I realise it is. I am equally likely to be heard saying "STOP TOUCHING THINGS, KEEP STILL, WATCH WHAT YOU ARE DOING" It isn't actually a performance, I'm just telling my child things.

TinyTear · 08/12/2016 09:45

Also guilty of shouting "green man" when I am by myself!

confuugled1 · 08/12/2016 09:49

I was back at work after having ds1 and asked if anyone wanted some milky in their coffee... luckily it was a friendly office with plenty of parents who all found it very funny and a great thing to gently tease me about rather than be mean a out it.

Also wben ds1 was little he used to love to play yellow car when we were out and about, especially when we were in the car. It just involved shouting 'yellow car' whenever one was spotted and bonus poibts for something really unusual pointed out- not that any tally was kept. Ds1 is now 11, ds2 is now 8 and both consider themselves a bit old for yellow car. Me - its so ingrained that i still find myself spotting yellow cars. At least I don't shout it out any more! Most of the time anyhow!

Nineloves1 · 08/12/2016 09:50

"Whereas you look stupid without any help at all."

In another life I would reply this.

Entire village has seen me rabbit away to Dbaby. One woman grinned at me when she caught me singing to him as I loaded the car. Maybe stupidity is a level I can only aspire to.

AnnieAnoniMouse · 08/12/2016 09:51

'Interfering Stranger' would have a field day with me...I talk to my car.

Maybe I need a new baby 😂

Olympiathequeen · 08/12/2016 09:53

I had a parent facing buggy so that I could chat with my babies. I talked to them all the time when we are out, describing, explaining etc even though they were only months old

I am deeply saddened to see parents ignoring their children and having their faces buried in their phones

RaptorInaPorkPieHat · 08/12/2016 09:55

I remember chatting to DD (when she was less than 6 months old) as I was wandering around the supermarket (talking about what to get for tea etc).

A lady said to me "Ooh I talk to myself all the time too!"

I couldn't be bothered to point at the child in the pram so I just smiled and nodded. How people expect children to learn language if you don't engage with them is beyond me.

CozumelFox · 08/12/2016 09:55

Congrats! You've met your first Wanker! Having a baby increases the number of Wankers around you. It's a bit like Pokemon. Now they'll pop up everywhere.

My favourite Wanker used to sneer in horror to her Wanker chums that she knew a mother who "used herbs in her baby's puree" - she said 'herbs' in the same tone you might say 'vodka' - and they all gasped and I laughed and realised it wasn't a joke and that's why I don't fit in.

Or the Wanker who saw me chopping some veg and mixing a sauce to make my toddler son's dinner and said "That's the stupidest thing I've ever seen." She believed toddlers should only be fed from jars and anything else was 'a waste of time'.

Wankers! Everywhere!

wornoutboots · 08/12/2016 10:04

if you don't talk to the baby, how is the baby supposed to learn speech forms?

Serialweightwatcher · 08/12/2016 10:08

What a stupid, rude person - who the heck thinks it's their right to tell anyone how to interract with their baby - I honestly don't understand how some people get to adulthood without someone putting their lights out! I speak to my dog all the time too and it's nobody else's business - A-holes!

wheresthewine36 · 08/12/2016 10:12

How do they learn to talk if they're not talked to?! Ignore, stranger was strange.

Porridgemagic · 08/12/2016 10:22

I love it when babies talk back! Prepare for a tidal wave of broody...

RaveclawZia13 · 08/12/2016 10:30

I once watched a programme on feral children and a child had no language skills as their mum thought it was pointless to interact with them as a baby as they 'didn't understand' and they just put them in front of a tv. Apparently children need to be exposed to speech before the age of two I think it was as they then lose their ability to adopt speech and it becomes infinitely harder to teach them to speak.

There were other problems in that home that left the child with no real skills but the speech one sticks out.

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