Saying baby instead of the baby or my baby

[KristinAmandaThomas]

Sorry if this sounds catty because I don't mean it nastily I'm just genuinely curious. I see so many threads where posters reference their baby but just as baby with no prefix. So "I need to get on with housework but baby won't settle". Why do people not say my baby? Or the baby?

I think this mainly puzzles me because it's specific to babies. Nobody ever says husband or child without prefix. It would be "my child has a fever" or "my husband is cooking tonight". Anyone know why? Or am I just BU as it's acceptable language when speaking of babies to need no prefixes?

I hate this, I agree with the people who say it’s twee and patronising. And HCPs who say they can’t be expected to remember names- fair enough, but why can’t you say “how are YOU?” as you would in a normal conversation?

Not as horrible as the posters that leave off the “to be”. Eg, the kids need fed. WTF even is that. I’ve never heard anyone in real life speak like that

This is absolutely normal here in Scotland. It's not horrible at all.

Annoying

@ChargingBuck

which makes me bite my lip for fear of shouting "Go on then, conjugate the verb "to of".

Aaaaw @LakieLady - please let rip one day, & come back & tell us all about it :)

Don't provoke me. I'm bad enough with my pedantry without anyone geeing me up.

I have a friend who always says "pacific/pacifically" instead of specific/specifically. I wince inwardly every time, and she seems to find an awful lot of opportunities to say it.

This used to annoy me all the time when i was pregnant as midwives/nct leaders all talk like that, i always thought it sounded so wrong.

I think it's just that baby replaces name

Jaymimeah-Maiy won't sleep
Baby won't sleep
Florence did a poo
Baby did a poo

@WheelieBinPrincess

I hate it when the health visitor or nurse says

‘And how’s mum?’

This really used to annoy me when my children were small. It sounds so bloody patronising.

I appreciate that the health visitor or nurse concerned can't be expected to remember everyone's name but what's wrong with 'and how are you'?

I would assume when they ask how you are they would be making some level of eye contact and no one is going to assume he or she is talking to the baby, or indeed anyone else who might be in the room.

As the patient, when I meet someone in these sort of situations I always ask 'how are you?' It would sound absolutely ridiculous if, instead of using the word 'you' I said 'how is nurse?'

It grates on me too. While pregnant I cringed every time the midwife would say something like “let’s check on baby”. The baby. Baby is not it’s name!

Just seen I've cross posted with Boood