to want to slap people when they refer to themselves in the third person?

[bewareofthedog]

Specifically my dad, and specifically when he's talking to my ds. It infuriates me! 'Guess what Granddad's been doing today?', 'Do you know what Granddad liked doing when he was a little boy?', 'Ooh, can Granddad have some of that cake?'.

Why do people talk to children like that? Or is it just my dad? I suspect IABU to get so riled about it but wanted to get it off my chest!!

stepfordwife agrees with you

I had no idea people found this irritating!

All the gparents do this in my family. When my dc were younger I'm sure I referred to myself as Mummy all the time to them as well. I've no idea why I did though.

It annoys me too, so obviously YANBU . However, I'm now wondering if I do it too? I will have to listen to myself!

It's instinctive. Not sure how old your DS is but I'm sure I read somewhere that you are supposed to speak to children like that - very young ones anyway. Pronouns are confusing ("I" or "you" means something different all the time) and it is easier for them to understand what is going on when you refer to yourself as Mummy and your DS as "Name of DS" etc.

Maybe your Dear Dad is just more advanced than you so hold off on the slaps!!

How old is your DS? It could be an effort on 'Grandad's part to get your DS to call him 'Grandad'

I spent the better part of my toddlerhood calling my parents by their given names and my grandparents 'mom' and 'dad' because that's what they were always referred to as.

My parents couldn't get me to stop until my grandparents pointed out that they needed to start not only calling each other Mom and Dad, but referring to themselves (in the third person) that way as well. Toddlers don't exactly respect naming preferences.

When the cat is always referred to as 'kitty' it's going to be called Kitty. If I want to be called mummy I will just have to suck it up and refer to myself as Mummy.

Of course, if your DS is over five it's NOT ON and 'Grandad' will just have to be publicly executed

MmeLindt doesn't mind this really

In the example given in the OP I dont think it would bother me.

I do hate it when clebs and the like do it. Its bizzare.

I remember one of those home along stories. A woman left her young teen at home whilst she trolled off to Ibiza or somewhere. She was all over the press when she got back and insisted in referring to herself in this way all the time.

'Well the thing is Crapmum needs me time. Crapmum has always felt the need for adventure and Crapmum just had to have a little holiday'

Z listers do it quite a lot. Women tend to do in a icky babydoll sort of way 'Chantelle needs a huggle' whilst men do it in a ridiculous macho way 'When Dane does something it stays done!'

Chegirl thinks this is vile.

See, I'm going to backtrack now because, thinking about it, I also do it all the time with my dd who's one. And I think I did it a lot with ds when he was younger.

He's nearly four now and has a pretty good grasp of the English language and is very good at holding conversations, so I think it irks me that my dad does it so much because it's like he's treating ds like a baby.

I also loathe the way everything's a question. I find myself saying in my head 'just tell him what you bloody well did today instead of asking him to guess what granddad did!'.

Think I'm on a downer with my dear old dad at the moment!

was about to say yanbu and say how irritating i find the grandparents doing it, and turned to ds and said 'give it to mummy' argh!

My mum does this.

My children are 9 & 10 and my neice is 11 !!

She also says to me and my sister "would X like a drink?"

X is standing RIGHT THERE!! Ask her/him/them yourself!!!!!

It's good with very little ones if you are trying to get them to learn your name and to make it easier with the whole me I you thing