"What you said???" - Its PARDON!!!

[Flame]

ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am going to kill either me or her soon!!!

"What? What you said"

"No, you say pardon."

"Oh. What you said?"

"ITS PARDON!!!!"

How do I get her to say pardon rather than "Wha'?" or "What you said?"?????

Its driving me insane. She's 4 btw - she knows that stupid, idiot, and spoilt brat are things we don't say, so why can't she grasp that pardon is what you do say?

Apparently pardon is 'non u' anyway, and 'What?" is perfectly acceptable.

Perhaps she does it because "What did you say?" has meaning as a sentance, and "Pardon?" doesn't, really.

The "what you said" is less irritating admittedly, its the "Wha'" that just sounds plain rude which drives me insane

your lucky i get a 'eh?' i have started ignoring him until he says pardon!!!!!

I get HUH? Drives me nuts, and I ignore them.

I was brought up to believe that it was a sin only slighly above murder or shoplifting to say "Pardon?"! "Pardon me"was OK if you burped , but if you didn't hear, it had to be "What did you say?" or "What?" Needless to say my children have learnt the hard way that most sensible people (ie not me) think that "What?" is incredibly rude, so they say what to me and pardon to everyone else!

hmm i wasnt allowed to say pardon either - had to be 'im sorry i didnt quite catch that' or 'what did yuo say' my mother is a little strange, has had several back ops cozshe refuses to bend her knees when picking something up from the floor the nuns said it was unladylike. 'what' isnt something i pick my kids up on (im too busy training them to use a fish knife )

I go for "I'm sorry, what did you say?" or "I'm sorry, could you say that again?".

Saying "pardon" means that you or your offspring can never be Queen, apparently... (that was one of the things that the tabloids claimed that the Royals had against Kate Middleton's parents)

ya what??

lmao - @ never being Queen... I'd love to see the royal family's take on DD

So... the plan now is to scrap pardon, and get her to do a full sentence (which she is mroe than capable of) of "Sorry, what did you say?"

I think if you can get her to pronounce the "t" on the end, just a monosyllabic "what?" is ok really.

That's what dd says and I'm fine about it, what I don't like is the way she frowns when she says it.

I think you are being a bit pathetic and should give your daughter a break. She is only four. If she has glue ear then its unfair to expect her speech to be perfect.

If you want her say something different it will help to model it back.

daughter : "Wha'!"
Mum: "pardon"

Telling a child off for bad speech and making them repeat you is couter productive.

If you need to speak to your daugher you need to think about the listening conditions. Your daughter need to be able to see your face. It helps to be in a room with carpets and soft furnishings. For example a living room might be an easier place to have a conversation than a tiled bathroom.

bloody hell you are a bit harsh

DD (4) says "what said?" and sometimes shortens it to "said?". I find it quite endearing tbh - in fact we all say it now

Frances

Yes LL - has been the week from hell, and the constant repeating of what I have just said was wearing a bit thin.

She says it as a standard response whether she has heard you or not (ie "What would you like to drink?" "What you said/Wha'? Apple juice.") and being tired, overworked and pssed off with DH doing fck all before he leaves for work, yes I am a touch tense!

What? is a perfectly fine response to not hearing someone.

Pardon is not.

Sometimes 4 year olds know best

"pardon" has bitten me in the ass.

Me "what would you like for lunch?"

Beast " its not what, its pardon"

I sympathise. I hate it when kids lose the ends of their words. I also think that 'what?' is quite rude. However in a 4 yr old I wouldn't worry too much - OK to remind her what you would prefer her to say but don't get cross about it. My DS#2's fav word of the moment is 'why?' He uses it when he really wants to know something but can't be bothered to think of the right question - as sort 'does not compute, need more data' thing.

Glue ear??

And having a conversation in a room with soft furnishings & carpet... hah! There would never be a conversation held in my home then, as I have no carpets anywhere!!

Frances, how is wanting to teach your child manners classed as "being a bit pathetic".

Flame, dd says "Sorry?" or "What, mammy, I didn't hear you?"

If Pardon is the word you use, and the word you want B to use, then teach her

But don't stress the small stuff, it will all fall into place

Yeah - where do you get off calling someone, with a pretty inoffensive OP, 'pathetic'?

You'd better never try that on me!

Flame - good luck. I can imagine it must be wearing when it is her standard response irrespective of whether she has heard you or not

Putting a 'y' on the ends of words is supposed to help the child pronounce the end consonant insn't it?

That's why we teach 'doggy' instead of 'dog' (which will tend to come out 'doh').

So maybe 'sorry?' would be a good compromise.

I hate 'what' too - don't care if it's non-u. I'm not u either! Wear your middle-class-ness with pride.

Flame - DD1 used to always say "what?" or "sorry?" whether she had heard me or not. I moaned about it to DH one day and he said "Yeah - you do that all the time to me". The worst thing is that I discovered that I did

(What is "non-u" anyway??? )

I like the idea of sorry tbh - and I know she can say that one

'u' = upper-class, I think. You're also supposed to say 'glass' rather than 'mirror', as I recall.