to looooooooathe babytalk?

[Babymumma]

Specificaly from mil!! She has a special voice she uses just for ds and a whole other language which includes: din-dins, tweety birdies, milky and bot-bot! grrrr, it's dinner, bird, milk and bottle. We don't use babytalk as I find it patronising and wangt him to learn to speak correctly. He has recently started to say "Ba" to our cat Bonnie which is really sweet but when mil is here she will repeatedly and very loudly say "Joseph where's Ba?Ba?Ba?Ba?". I'm sure he will find his own way of pronouncing words which is fine but if you repeat his version back to him he wont learn the correct pronounciation will he? AIBU?

Mainly mil I have to say noonki, but, babytalk does bug me when it comes from an adults mouth (hers especialy)but is sweet when said by a child. I wouldn't correct lo but also will not teach him doggie, din-dins or milky. My brother couldn't pronounce my name as a kid so Samantha became Smasa and some of my family still call me this. You see, that is fine as it was his attempt at my name not something he was taught to say.

Ewww I can see why it bugs you then! No-one should talk to an adult like that (blurgh)

Oh gosh, yes, appalling when used by one adult talking to another. And your MIL does sound rather hard to take.

BUT the fundamental point remains, motherese is a good thing and the natural way to talk to babies. All this criticism stems from male experts a few decades ago who thought they should be in charge and women were too thick to bring up children without male guidance.

A bit like the 1960s/70s idea that formula milk was 'scientific' and therefore better for baby. Or that women had been doing childbirth wrong all those years and really, lying flat on your back with your legs in stirrups and your fanny shaved was MUCH more efficient.

Or (earlier) that they'd been getting motherhood all wrong and needed male experts like Truby King to order them to put those darn babies down - all that cuddling will raise a generation of nancy-boys, don't you know?

We've gradually been realising, ever since, that generations of mothers actually did know something about bringing up babies... unfortunately it seems this discredited nonsense about 'you must never speak baby language to, er, babies' is now so embedded people don't stop to question it.

Blimey!

Adult to adult no!! And some things I can understand!! For example my DP uses bot bot and I hate that one. I don't mind him saying others but bottle has to be bottle.

Other things I don't mind. DD always get pussy cat and doggie. Also birdies lol

IMO you're completely right Edam. Society should just let mothers be mothers, let instinct lead like it always has done.

yanbu, I hate it too it does sound completely patronising.

Having said that, I find myself scarily drawn into it, possibly because we had the pooch first who has din dins and walkies, so unconciously we speak to the baby in the same way. Only because of this thread have I realised I do it, that won't make me stop but think about what I say more. I grew up not understanding why gee gees were horses, it didn't register at all.

Well dd gets milkies and sleepies and will continue to do so until I see fit to stop. Talking to a 6 month old about their milk and sleep is plain stupid IMHO It's all part of the loveliness of childhood and I don't care what people think.

And myself and my brother still call our parents mummy and daddy when we're talking about them. We're in our 30's. So shoot us!

good for you eyeballs, I can't see me changing the baby talk now, though I did vow I wouldnt do it

I call my dad daddy when I want something, it never works.

LOL, neither does mine!

Babytalk is natural though, isn't it? Most of us probably swear we won't do it but most of us do so there must be some logic to it.

Some people are confusing Form and Content.
Content=what you actually talk about eg. Western civilisation
Form=how you talk about it eg. using 'baby' words, simplified grammar

Yes, terrific post Edam.

Sigh. I do get iritated by these discussion where everyone wilfully ignores reasonable, well-informed posts in favour of 'well I hate it' and 'she's a funny woman so must be wrong'

Adults all over the world use different tones and words when speaking to babies and children

It's instinctive

It's instinctive for a bloody good reason: it's great way fo young children to pick up language

so no need at all to feel guilty/snobbish/irritated by a perfectly natural and helpful approach

I think the reason an extra syllable is often added on the end of a word when speaking babytalk is to help the baby hear the last sound in the word. eg "doggy" helps the baby hear the "g"

Lucky, for a horrible moment there, I thought you meant your partner used 'bot bot' when talking to you...

(Thanks Moondog!)

I understand that baby-talk is helpful for babies, but my mum insists on adding "-s" to everything "Helloes, are you a good girls?" argh! Drives me mad!

Effie was that aimed at me?

Bump, that's funny. My dd does that when she is pissed off.

YABU.
Your MIL sounds like an absolute PITA but you are wrong to project your feelings about her towards 'babytalk'. Why not do some research into its importance. I'm sure moondog could recomend something.

I fall into shameful babytalk these days, when I get my hands and voice on a baby. It is probably quite hilarious, in a toe-curling way.

Refer her to a salt for her curious morphological processes.

In training were told that only one tribe in world does not use motherese. In the Amazon somewhere (as these folk invariably are).

Message withdrawn

YANBU- My MIL does it infact she does everything possible to annoy me. What really pisses me off is that she refers to my dd in made up names such as poppet, pudding, bear, chippy- I mean for ff her name is RUBY!!!!!!