‘Baby’ versus ‘the baby’

[Orangebitters]

Does this give anyone else an irrational rage?

I am recently pregnant and I keep hearing......

‘When baby comes’
‘Best for baby’
‘I bet you can’t wait for baby’
‘Is baby a boy or a girl’

I miss the definite article.

@Juanbablo

"Are you mum?" That really annoys me too. No I'm Juanbablo. I'm the child's mum.

This drives me insane. I got a bit arsey once with one doctor. “Oh, are you mum?” he asked, dismissively. “Well, I’m not your mum, no...”, I replied....

god yes, I observed this on a PN ward, if I'd been the mother I would have wanted to punch her
it's cos they think women are to thick to understand the difference between paediatrician and paedophie.

RAGE.
Equal to being called "mum"

How do you feel today mum? Or even better the double whammy: How is baby, mum?

It's neither my name, nor am I your mother, grrrr

I actually think it’s quite sweet! And I am one who is easily annoyed by pretty much everything.

We didn’t find out the sex of either of our
children so HCP’s would always just say “baby”. Sometimes I still call the newest baby “baby”. He likes it.

My friend is pregnant (little girl) and always refers to her as "baby".
I choke on my own vomit a little bit every time.

My mum weirdly refers to me as mummy when my children are around, and also answers (not maliciously) when my eldest says “mummy”. Argh!

I hate it! Why not say my baby, our baby, the baby.

I also hate it when someone talks about their one child as 'them'; what's wrong with son or daughter unless they are intersex which is extremely rare.

Gives me the rage. I had to clench my teeth throughout two pregnancies every time a midwife said it. Which was every bloody time.

On a vaguely related note, I also hate 'stay home.' It's 'stay AT home' for fucks sake.

I'm so glad that other people hate the 'mum' thing too!!! It really, really makes me very angry. My name is on the chart in front of you.
I've asked you to call me "Elmo"

I really hated it so much. It actually is probably enough to put me off having another child 😂😂😂

@bigpricklyfern I will try to combine both yours and mine tomorrow and nip off to the "the asdas" and see what he does

namechangetheworld Tue 26-Jan-21 23:28:26
Gives me the rage. I had to clench my teeth throughout two pregnancies every time a midwife said it. Which was every bloody time.
......
They do, don't they! However there is some excuse for that, they see so many babies and cannot be expected to remember all their names. Imagine if they called one Jane when she was Jenny!

My mil used to say he's "done a dirt" in his nappy. This made me feel sick. "Done a poo" however is fine. Made me want to scream at her "don't be so disgusting"

Fecking Health Visitor always used to say “Hi, Mum! How’s the mood?” as soon as I opened the door. DH claimed I was being ridiculous, of COURSE she’d not be sayin that. Until he furtively eavesdropped the next time she visited.

@TwoDrifters2

I hate this too. And vice versa when an unnecessary “the” gets inserted. My mother does this. She talks about a message she got on “the WhatsApp” and now what’s going on with “the COVID”.

I hate ‘the Asda’ eg I am going to the Asdas. (It gets made into plural too).

Drives me absolutely bonkers, never even knew until recently when someone I know became pregnant.

'Neil, baby' ridiculous
'Neil THE baby' perfectly fine

Thank you to Nessa, I rest my case

Ah you're all miserable 🤣
It's Baby not baby, it's like asking how Emma is doing today but they don't know what you've called it yet.

And I spent YEARS being called Mom / Mommy by grown adults whom I'm too young to have given birth to / older than me. You just get used to it. The first time the nurse used my name I went into shock 🤣

Yes yes yes to all of these!

I’d like to add ‘offer the breast’ which I now think about and cringe at multiple times a day when offering my own breast to THE baby. She has a name but as the youngest child will be referred to as ‘the baby’ forevermore- such is the way when you marry a scouser.

I also have someone on Facebook who refers to her husband and child as ‘hubs and bubs’. Unbearable.

I once accidentally offered 2 litres of vodka to a friend when I momentarily forgot she was pregnant (I’m not an arsehole, I have genuine problems with my memory). She quite breezily said “Oh cheers, I can’t have any though because of the tumour”. Naturally I was horrified at my faux pas and enquired about her health issue when she laughed and pointed out that her tumour was a baby.

I think on that basis alone, I am more than fine with just plain old “Baby”.

@Clevererthanyou

I once accidentally offered 2 litres of vodka to a friend when I momentarily forgot she was pregnant (I’m not an arsehole, I have genuine problems with my memory). She quite breezily said “Oh cheers, I can’t have any though because of the tumour”. Naturally I was horrified at my faux pas and enquired about her health issue when she laughed and pointed out that her tumour was a baby.

I think on that basis alone, I am more than fine with just plain old “Baby”.

Someone I know referred to her unborn baby as "the parasite". Technically, maybe correct, but it sounded awful.

Arrrgh. That’s never occurred to me before and now it will infuriate me every time.

The above was for @sanityisamyth sorry. Quote fail!

I love “changing her/his bum”! I never heard it before. Sounds like they are about to get plastic surgery. Can someone change my bum? Would love one that is a bit less squishy!

On a vaguely related note, I also hate 'stay home.' It's 'stay AT home' for fucks sake

THIS. Creeping Americanisation of the English language and the obliteration of prepositions and adverbs.

@Sheleg

Not as annoying as twee nicknames like Peanut or Raisin "because that's how big baby was when we found out". So effing twee.

😁. I'm ok with this but can understand the sentiment on both sides. I nicknamed mine Dodo because it was the last remaining and only surviving blastocyst from our ivf. Didn't use it much though since we didn't tell anyone till 20+ weeks and by then we knew it would be a girl. I did realise that really nobody really cares when you find out, what it is and what the temporary nickname is.