to not want my dd's nursery to teach her to say "ta"?!

[mummy2isla]

Not to be snobby or anything .... ... but I HATE babies being taught to say "ta" - my dd (11 months) has just started in nursery and all the nursery staff tell her to say "ta" all the time - I don't like it, but have the feeling I would be a bit awful to ask them not to?

you go VS!!!

"I don't want her to be taught ta but clearly it would be bl**dy unreasonable to pull her out of nursery, quit my (part-time!) job and stay at home so that she gets more exposure to "thank you"". I think you just answered your own question - YABU. Oh and by the way - if you really don't like the Leeds accent don't live in Leeds!

I'm trying to think of a good equivalent to see how I would feel about this as no one says "ta" here. I agree that it's good to teach them manners in any form, but my DS has always said "tankoo" so it isn't that difficult. However, if you're satisfied with her nursery in other ways I would just bite my tongue. There are things about DS's daycare that I'm not fond of, but when it all comes down to it he loves the lady, she loves him, and I trust her to keep him safe and happy. It's sort of all you can ask for sometimes!

what's the problem with knowing that they'll have to learn to say something different later?

I expect my children to learn to speak French and German and all sorts

doesn't mean they can't learn to speak baby language first, then adult English

people's language evolves constantly anyway

I also expect them to eventually learn to adapt their language to whatever social environment they are in

I wouldn't have many friends if I spoke to them in the same way I speak to my colleagues

so they might as well start early

Haha!! I was dispairing until I read the comments by VS!!

My DS is 12 months and doesn't say anything much really! We get the odd da-da, or brum, and he likes to say Nar-na for dinner(or anything else he wishes to eat!!) Should I start correcting him on these?

Pull.Yourself.Together.

"I think we are all agreeing that its good to teach babies that a response is required when they are given something"

no that's my point
i don't agree that it is good to teach babies that a response is required when they are given something

I am too lazy to read the thread

The point about "ta" is that it is easier for babies to say, hence the phrase baby talk. It is a good shorthand.

Later on, you teach them to say thankyou

I feel uncharacteristically peeved about this thread.

YANBU - "ta" has always been a no-no in this house.

To register my interest in this one. I taught my DSs to say ta (I never say it myself - I say "cheers" ), but they now say thankyou

Oh, and it's nothing to do with accent .

YANBU. My DD came home from nursery saying Ta. Ghastly. I asked them (tactfully) if they had a new person saying Ta and they said that they usually said thank you to the children. She stopped saying it after that and switched to enkoo

Enkoo - that's not even a word !!!!!!

S.N.O.B.B.E.R.Y

i always teach my little one thank you but most kids sat ta at first

after reading this thread i completly agree with vs, and i really don't under stand whats wrong with the word 'belly'?

I'm sensing if you don't agree with 'change your bum' whats the chances you'll like a child being asked 'to park their bum'?

YANBU
Why do people say "ta" to babies / toddlers? Drives me up the wall.
I know that some children will say "Ta" when they first learn to speak but they are trying to say thank you. Why on earth would anyone teach them to say it
Pet hate of mine. No baby talk in this house. If anyone babytalks my kids in my earshot then I correct them. I just say "we say thank /dog / bottle (delete as appropriate) , they don't understand what you mean" Maybe some people would find that rude but my kids really don't know what a woofy is so there is no point in saying it to them.
When my DD first started to talk she used to pn thank you as tasinks . DS says "yatass" , we think he might be foreign
Baby talk shudders

Bloody hell fire, all you people getting in a sweat about the word 'ta' and similar slang words/colloquialisms obviously lead very charmed lives. Don't you have something more important to stress about?

And I find it HILARIOUS that signing 'thank you' is somehow seen as better than saying 'ta'! As someone posted early on, babies can say 'ta' as part of their babbling and it in no way hinders their ability to say 'thank you' anymore than signing does. It's just that signing is, of course, very middle class and 'ta' is something someone with a shudder regional accent might say. Snobby, snobby, snobby.

but why use a shorthand if they can say thank you? and indeed why teach them something that they can't really understand in the first place? after all, if they can't say the word, what chance do they have of understanding the concept of gratitude?

it's the mind-numbing blank incomprehension of the 'what do you say? 'ta-AH' that i find creepy. your child should be learning manners because they hear you being well-mannered, not because you've drilled into them that they have to trot out 'ta' every time they're handed something.

so if you don't say thankyou it's not unreasonable to find someone else drilling your child in this meaningless fashion a source of some irritation. and to those people saying it's snobbery, it would seem just as irritating if somone was telling your child not to say ta if you wanted them to.

Aitch, whilst I agree that you shouldn't TEACH a child to say 'Ta' I have never taught mine it and they say it.
Same goes with nursery, we don't teach words, except things like 'mummy/dady/child's name' doesn't mean they don't just say 'ta' as a natural matter of course.

Also ginormoboobs maybe you should delve a bit deeper into how children learn to speak and why it is good for them to learn things like 'woof-woof' for a dog.

Why exactly is it good for a child to learn that a dog is a woof woof? Genuine question here.
Both of mine were perfectly capable of making the animal noise before they could say the word. Like if you ask them what a cow says they would say "moo" etc. I just didn't teach them that the animal was called a moo moo.

Children learn the meaning of words by associating that word with an event, or an action. Of course they can't understand the meaning of the concept of gratitude, but they can learn that ta, or thankyou is a word you say when someone gives you something. Later on they learn why you say thankyou.

They will be helped in this process by ALSO hearing you say thankyou

I did teach mine to say ta because it's a perfectly, IMO, acceptable abbreviation of thankyou, and more important, is easy for them to say.

yep, ta or thank you. so let's not load everything with snobbisme just cos the OP chooses to inculcate her child with the meaningless term thankyou rather than ta. plus, i don't care what you say... kids who say ta rather than thankyou sound a bit thick.

Cheers for that insight

I must admit shortened versions of words or phrases do bug me. I always talk to babies / children using full words, babies learn quickly and tend to pick up words with multiple sounds in quicker. I don't shorten other words or phrases so can't see the point of saying "ta" instead of thank you, if we shortened everything no one would have any idea of what we were talking about. I also hate it when children say ow with an E sound on the end. I'm definately not a snob (but DH definately is) I just like children and people to talk propa .

I think if you don't like it you should ask the nursery staff to say thank you instead of ta. At the nursery I worked at the manager would not like the staff to say ta either, regardless of regional dialect etc.

"snobbisme" - like that word a lot. Will try to insert that into my conversation as much as possible in future.