it really irritates me when people say their baby is flirting

[koolaid]

at adult members of the opposite sex.

As in "oh DS was flirting with all the health visitors at the doctors today"

When all the baby did was smile/gurgle at someone who was showing them a lot of attention, in the way that babies do.

And always said about their DS, no-one who say the same thing about their baby girl.

It just really irks me. AIBU?

DS1 spent a bus journey flirting with a man in a business suit. He won him over in a very short space of time.

Oh dittany....sigh....

It's not clear cut though is it? As LovelyTinOfSpam points out.

aitch;

you are getting backed into a corner here...you know you're wrong..

Thing is, I don't actually care whether anyone is irritated by my using the word "flirting" to describe what my children did. I know what context I mean it in, as do a large proportion of other people. If some are weird enough to think I mean it in asexual manner that is their problem.

it would make a chap feel uncomfortable imo fiver because of paedomania (alive and well judging by this thread) and it might make a child feel uncomfortable because any mention of anything remotely to do with love makes eleven-year-old girls blush to their toes.

i'm not sure if boys and girls are as explicit in their flirting as babies though, they don't tend to be quite so openly manipulative in their advances. that's the hilarious thing about it in babies, the shamelessness of the lady di eye batting. in fact that's why babies' eyes are set wide apart, so that we are attracted to them and care for them. women mimic that with eyeliner etc, but you can't work it backwards to prove that babies are slaaaags.

bluddy HELL I get cross with the PCers on MN sometimes.

People have been talking about babies "flirting" with adults for at least 50 years. In the most innocent way. It's just shorthand & everybody (except the PC brigade) knows exactly what's meant by it.

Jesus.

I don't think it's about being less overtly manipulative in their advances, it's probably because they've had it trained out of them.

Well as a baby my dd is did flirt with men on the train when I used to take her on once a week, it was noticed by someone and commented upon. She would flutter her eyelashes at them etc and always got a response even from a few rows back. My Ds used to get adult attention but not in the same way.
She is 11 now and yes she is still a flirt in a non sexual way to both sexes. I think some people are just natural flirts and don't even know they are doing it. All I know is she gets away with a lot at school, by fluttering her ridiculously long eyelashes.

i absolutely flirt with everyone, lovelytinofspam.

yep, soupy. this is just silly and weird imo, and i'm operating on not much more than three-quarters of a brain cell myself. we need 100x, she flirts with newsagents as well.

i absolutely flirt with everyone, lovelytinofspam.

yep, soupy. this is just silly and weird imo, and i'm operating on not much more than three-quarters of a brain cell myself. we need 100x, she flirts with newsagents as well.

People who interpret this phrase sexually in this context have the issues imo.

FYI - when I have said this re DD you weirdos have sexualised it's meaning, not me.

gosh you really caught the mood of the post.how intelligent and incisive of you

is your usual debating style to shout insults like a redneck at hockey game

shocked at being caled a weirdo by a weirdo

unlike you, eh, sm?

Sorry SM was that post for me?

Well I certainly flirt with people that I wouldn't want to have sex with.

Flirting is about playing with your attraction, getting others to notice you, about others noticing you making you feel good, about others wanting you to notice them also making you feel good, about how making others feel good often has benefits for you etc etc.

All this is sexual but not about sex.

And children will use all these behaviours to some degree in some ways.

I wouldn't call it flirting personally as that does have adult sexual overtones as well and as Aitch said that can make us 'uncomfortable with a perfectly ordinary situation in a time of paedomania.'

But whatver you call it children do it.

but we're talking about language, it's fluid, its meaning can alter slightly for different epople in different situations, its meaning can alter over time due to societal an d cultural changes.

Some people find flirting a sexual word. They are not wrong. Some people don't. They are not wrong. I'm not sure why anyone is getting cross and trying to win this debate.

ponders i can debate without shouting weirdo at folk out car window. i can give it a better whirl than that lame attempt.as put downs go it was piss poor

sm, is that post on the wrong thread?

you are looking GREAT. that ribbon looks AMAZING on you.

Points deducted for use of the word redneck. Old school insult tbh that quite frankly doesn't do the job anymore. I am getting a red pen out as we speak and annotating 'must try harder' in the left hand margin on my screen.

I also stand by my post. Anyone that takes the word 'flirting' when used in this context is a weirdo imo. Their issue, not mine thankfully.

It's not my issue, gibbon. It's just my understanding, that's all.