That bloody whine!!!

[mrstiggy]

You know that noise right? The up and down pitch, the elongation of the first and last word, the gist normally along the lines of 'I don't like that' ?

My previously wonderful, happy, easy going dc2 has developed a whine. She's 6 and its never been that noticeable before apart from the odd 'muuuuum, dc1 has taken my toy'. Now it feels almost perminant. At the slightest provocation she will shout loudly in a really whiny voice and its driving me crackers! I've tried telling her to just talk about things (preferably in a quieter voice) and have even resorted to 'I'm not going to listen/help until you speak nicely' but it's still happening All The Time.

Please mumsnet, either tell me your magic tricks for making it stop or reassure me that most 6yo girls go through this and it won't last. Or I'm buying earplugs for the summer holidays.

My two (age 4 and 2) do this from time to time and it makes my ears bleed. I, very politely, explain that I can't understand them when they talk in that way, so could they please repeat themselves. It usually works, although a 4 year old, I would imagine is a lot more persuadable!

My DD (6) used to be a terrible whiner - she's a lot better now, but still has her moments.

I used to just pretend I couldn't hear her when she was whining, and just say something like "Oh what's that noise? I thought I heard something whining. Oh well..." and I would just repeat this until her pitch was at normal level. She eventually got the messsage that I just wouldn't respond to the whining.

Yes, MrsG has it. Mine are older now but I used to have "faulty" or "magic" ears that couldn't hear whining. I wouldn't even say "I can't hear you", just ignore.

Provided you mean it and never, ever respond to the whining it will soon stop.

Thanks guys, glad other people have had this too (well, not glad as such but you know )
I'll do my best to just ignore it completely and hope it goes away. I just want my happy kid back and see the back of this whiney stroppy PITA. Thought this wouldn't happen until she hit her teens.

I've been known to whine back. About how much I hate whining and that whining will never, ever, ever, ever be the way to get my attention, and that it's likely to make me do the exact opposite of what the whiner wants.
They generally think it's funny, but do seem to pick up on how annoying it is. Although, I suppose that annoying is the point.