To want my child to learn the proper words for things?

[AmIThough]

A friend offered to buy DC a top that says "ask me to see my moo cow" then if you lift the top there's a picture of a cartoon cow.

Crappy tat anyway but that's not the point.

I said no thanks, as I want DC to learn the proper words for things - I don't see why you would teach a child to call a cow a ' moo cow' or a frog a 'ribbit' (which is another example I've heard) rather than a cow or a frog.

I got told I'm a 'boring fart'.
What do you think? Am I being overly precious?

Butchyrestingface yes, The correct terminology, if you please, is tedious flatus. Best comment ever!

I’ve done a mix. I talk to my little ones in quite an adult way with a large vocab but I also use ‘baby’ words like nana for banana, horsey. Some things have stuck so I find it quite wierd to actually say banana now.

In your example I think Yabu, the top is saying it’s a cow and cows make a moo sound.
I do hate hearing made up names for objects such as “doey” instead of dummy or “bankie” instead of blanket.

think that putting your children in clothes which prompt strangers to ask them to lift their clothing is a bit weird.

Thirded. I saw that t-shirt on AliBaba and thought nah, that’d never work in England. Apparently I was wrong!

@Userzzzzz see I don't think 'nana' is unreasonable. It's part of the word at least, and banana is quite a difficult word really?

Moo cow just seems completely unnecessary- why add an extra word before the correct one? Especially when it's such a simple word.

Associating sounds with words makes it easier for kids to learn the proper names of things. The kids saying ‘moo cow’ at 1-2 will definitely be the ones reading and learning faster than the ones struggling to remember cow at 3.

I'm also with all of you who think encouraging a child to lift their top is weird!

I really will never cease to be amazed at what stuff bothers some people, this site is a school day every day.

@butchyrestingface hahahahahahah

I think you need to engage a sense of humour. Some parents would suck the life out of others with their silly rules.

I think it's reasonable to use proper words for things, but it wouldn't worry me to use tops etc with moo cow or baa lamb. My friend told me she would be using proper words to her child. I have to admit that I was surprised though, when he was two and I pointed out a lovely dog to him, and he informed me it was a German Shepherd! He also didn't say car, he used makes and models! His toy tractor was a "John Deere". But his speech was on a par with my son's and now they are grown up, I doubt you'd know which one played with a toy moo cow, and which played with a toy Jersey heifer!

@chocolatemademefat I'm not here to judge anybody else's parenting techniques and was perfectly willing to accept if I was being unreasonable.

I'm sure I'm not going to suck the life out of anyone but thanks for your input!

I'm with you OP - my personal worst is "Ta" for thank you. Hate, hate, hate it!

My grandmother used to rant about baby names for things, she was dead against them.

I remember also this ironic scene from when Adrian Mole cappuccino years was on TV, with a severe nursery teacher interviewing Adrian’s son William:

Teacher: what are these animals? (Showing pictures)
William: Doggie, pussy, horsey.
Teacher (frowning): Hmmm... I had hoped to hear dog, cat, horse.

I'm with you on this one OP but I do admit to being a tedious flatus in this department. Still, better a TF than a trump, boff or parp!

My pet hates are: Dippy egg, tummy, sweeties (why lengthen the word?) and all those words for genitalia people have because they think there's something shameful about vaginas, vulvas and penises.

I know exactly what you mean, my mil always said get the pap pap instead of car n Bok bok for bottle or gee gee for horse and it really got on my nerves in the end I told her straight

You sound like I feel when, at the zoo, people are looking at lemurs and calling them monkeys to their children.

@TeenTimesTwo

But lemurs are monkeys. They have a tail therefore they are monkeys

Chimps and orangutans are apes as they don’t have a tail

Totally agree with you OP. I hate hearing exaggerated baby talk for animal names etc. I would always use cow, not moo cow. But also wouldn’t dress my kids in clothing that asked strangers to lift their clothes up 😳

Soub But lemurs are monkeys. They have a tail therefore they are monkeys

No they aren't.

Primates can be broken into two suborders: anthropoids and prosimians. Monkeys, apes and humans are anthropoids. Lemurs are prosimians.
See www.pbs.org/edens/madagascar/creature2.htm

They don't call tigers, lions. So why call lemurs, monkeys?

@Soubriquet lemurs aren’t monkeys. They are prosimian primates, therefore neither monkeys nor apes. Not that I would expect people to be discussing such level of detail with their small children at a zoo.

Ah, cross post with @TeenTimesTwo

You're overthinking it a bit, OP.
But I have to admit, my kids never called a frog anything other than a 'frog'. I mean, DD called mushrooms just that: mushrooms. But she said blablooms. And all 3 kids called a bottle a baba until they could enunciate their words, which time promises.

Do you EVER meet a 60-year-old cattle farmer who shows off his moo cows?

We all get there. You could have just given your friend the pleasure of buying the t-shirt. That being said, the t-shirt sounds weird. For some reason, I'm uncomfortable with the whole 'lift my top to peek underneath' antics. Something doesn't sit right with that. Probably just me. But I was sexually abused as a child, so now I'm the one overthinking here.

I don't think you are being unreasonable. I encourage proper words with my children. But sometimes they end up calling stuff something totally random. Then that's cute!
My middle son used to call his bottle a 'tea mock' no idea where that would come from! Even though I would giggle at it and still call it his bottle he would insist. Then one day it stopped and I was kind of gutted as sign he's growing up!! 🙈

I never used 'baby words' either.
My favourite example of why I find it pointless was an encounter with a family about to board a train with two young children. One of the adults was saying "We're going to go on the Choo-Choo train."
Except it was an electric train. We haven't had trains that go "Choo-Choo" around here in sixty years.

Wikipedia article on 'motherese':

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_talk