Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

Parenting

For free parenting resources please check out the Early Years Alliance's Family Corner.

Flip

1 2 3

Original poster

Talking to my baby in public - surely i'm not the only one?

75 replies

matana · 11/04/2011 14:01

Inspired by the 'how much time do you spend 1 to 1 with your child' thread.

Every visit to the supermarket, or other shops or anywhere else for that matter, i talk to my 5 month old DS. In fact, i talk to him pretty much all the time. But i am always very surprised how few of the other mothers do the same in public. When i started doing it i felt a bit, well, daft. But now i just don't care and it's become a bit of a habit.

Do you talk to your baby in public and, if so, why do i feel like i'm the only one?

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

BluddyMoFo · 12/04/2011 15:18

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

tallulah · 12/04/2011 15:38

I talked to mine all the time. I got approached by an elderly gent in the SM who told me how lovely it was to hear mothers chatting to babies and how much good it does them. I was quite as I was having a daft monologue with my non-verbal baby about which sort of crumpets her sister might prefer (basically talking to myself )

Goldrill · 12/04/2011 15:48

ooh yes - a champion witterer here too. Do hope she makes more sense than me when she grows up though.

I do it more with the dog though, tbh and have done it quite frequently when I'm walking but she's not there. I actually got my spare dog lead out of my pocket and started calling her a while back (knowing she was safely on the sofa at home) because a couple gave me a very odd look. In my defense, my mum does it too!

Interested in this thread?

Then you might like threads about these subjects:

Families General parenting

mollymole · 12/04/2011 15:52

i did, all the time and he spoke really well before his 1st birthday and i did not give a toss what anyone else thought - far better to have an articulate child than one who communicates in grunts and gibberish

Mousey84 · 12/04/2011 15:55

Teddy - try reading stuff out loud - like this forum. You are reading it anyway, so just read ot out loud, just for a minute or two at a time for now. You dont have to start doing it all the time right now.

I admit to talking all the time to my 2 and 3 yr old mindees (and did with dd when she was small) It isnt usually anything v exciting. "I like apples, what do you like? Pears? Great. What else?" Or a running commentary of how im making their snack or the order in which we are going to do something "first we need to make the sandwiches, then take them into the garden and then we can eat them" I think I probably do it in a bit of a sing song voice a lot- Ive caught myself a few times but not sure if I do it ALL the time....

DD talked at average time, but good range of vocab.

WMDinthekitchen · 12/04/2011 15:59

I have three children - 24, 23 and 16 and talked to them all, a lot. Going down the road with a pram...'that's a tall tree, there's a policeman, that lady is wearing a lovely dress, Daddy will be home soon, red car, there's a cat...' and so on. 'Tis surely how they learn.

SummerRain · 12/04/2011 16:07

I chat to mine all the time, have always done so as i like to think out loud and having a baby with you is the perfect excuse (although not loudly in that annoying smug parent way i'll have you know )

dd and ds1 were really early talkers and very articulate... ds2 is 2 and still non-verbal as he has a processing disorder.

I think worse than not talking to them much though is talking over them.... my aunt never talked to her son, she talked over him constantly though and never let him get a word in edgeways, poor lad was 3 before he talked, yet he was able to copy sounds well before that and even said 'giraffe' for me at less than 2, but had forgotten it by the time I saw him again as he never got a chance to use it. He's a teenager now and she still answers for him and interrupts him if he tries to say a word!

AngelDog · 12/04/2011 16:58

I've noticed that my 15 m.o. DS gets a lot of attention when I stop and talk to him about vehicles / diggers / whatever. Men lean out of the vans they're driving to wave at him and people talk to him when I'm telling him about the shopping trolleys he's pointing at. The amount of attention he gets suggests that it's pretty unusual (neither he nor I are anything remarkable to look at )

I talk to him all the time when we're out, much more than I do in the house - it's easier as in the rear facing pushchair he has my full attention, whereas at home I'm often trying to do jobs.

Mostly I just show him things and tell him about things he's pointing at. As a result he points at even more things and I tell him about even more. I don't primarily do it to help his language (although that's a bonus) - just because I enjoy being with him and sharing in his amazement at the world around him.

I have the reverse problem to the smug mums - I can be making disparaging comments about a car or something, and then realise too late that I'd accidentally spoken too loud and its owners can hear me.

SlightlyB0nkers · 12/04/2011 17:20

I'm a quiet and shy person too so probably don't talk as much as I should. I find it easier to recite poems and stories or just make up songs so the house isn't completely quiet. Dd has a good few words now at 14 months so I can't be doing it all wrong.

I wouldn't mind though if somebody was chatting with their baby in a loud voice, even if it was for show. I'd think they are just very proud of their dc's and that's nice.

TeddyMcardle · 12/04/2011 17:29

Thanks for all your tips, I'm in the same boat as slightly really. I do read to him every day a few times a day usually and sing to him, just haven't grasped the running commentary yet. Find it easier in the pram pointing at new things, but he's not interested mostly.
Most babies talk in 'grunts and gibberish' mm.

HecateQueenOfTheNight · 12/04/2011 17:33

I used to chat to them all the time. Not loudly for the benefit of those around me (you know what I mean! ) but just quiet chatter to them.

In fact, I remember once in Tesco, I had my son in his car seat inside the trolley (I know, I know!) anyway, I was shopping and chatting quietly to him when this woman edged over. She peered in and with great relief exclaimed "OH! You have a baby in there!"

[boggle]

I must look like the type of person who chats to her bread and milk

thefirstMrsDeVere · 12/04/2011 18:03

Teddy the running commentary may not be what you DS needs. It sounds as if you are doing fine.

AngelDog · 12/04/2011 22:44

Teddy, I found I started talking to DS much more when he got to the pointing stage in the pram. Once he started being interested in a few of the things I pointed to and told him about on a regular basis, he would point and grunt and ask me to tell him. Now he points things out and tells me (today was 'wuh wuh' when he saw a dog) and we have good old chats. :)

Flisspaps · 12/04/2011 22:51

In fact, thinking of my post from yesterday, DM took DB to the SALT when he was little as he never spoke. The SALT suggested me (then 3yo) and DM stopped talking and DB a chance to get a word out

noodle69 · 13/04/2011 07:27

Flisspaps - Thats exactly what the speech therapist said to my mum back in the 80s when my brother wasnt talking about me!

Woodlands · 13/04/2011 22:49

I let my inner monologue run free now, it's great! I have also just switched my buggy round from facing me to forward facing (DS is almost 9 months) and although it's easy to switch back, and I probably will have him facing me if I want him to go to sleep, it does feel a bit harder to talk to him now. I can't see his face without going right round!

nappyaddict · 14/04/2011 20:41

I don't really see the point in asking babies opinions when they are too young to understand what you are asking them and be able to respond. But I did talk to DS when he was a baby by telling him what I was doing, where we were going, what we were looking at etc.

MrsCampbellBlack · 14/04/2011 20:45

I've talked to all of mine but DS2 was a late talker. And I did used to get ever so slightly frustrated when people would say 'oh do you talk to him' because obviously I never did

I think most people talk to their babies - I'd say it was more unusual not to see a mother chatting to the child/baby in her pushchair when out and about.

lexxity · 14/04/2011 21:07

I witter on all day to DS2, I did with DS1 too. He was a relatively late talker at 2yo, he's now 5.5 and never shuts up. I quite frankly don't give a monkeys if anyone thinks I'm odd or a bit bonkers. We're all happy and that's what matters.

ChablisorSancerre · 15/04/2011 16:42

Hmm. Leaving the playground with my little one the other day and I said "oh look DD, there's a spotty dog". Without hesitation (and at full volume) she replied "No Mummy, that's a Dalmation". Won't be showing my face around there for a few weeks . . . and will be talking a lot less to my younger DS!

MonkeyandParrot · 15/04/2011 23:12

I always talk to both mine - yesterday evening i made up a story going home on the bus and as i got off the bus driver asked me to stay on and finish! Not sure whether it was a compliment :-)

MonkeyandParrot · 15/04/2011 23:15

Oh and it was the mum quite happily singing old macdonald on the bus complete with full body actions of all the animals (monkeys, tigers, cows) with her LO that kept a train full of school kids quiet. Much better than the usual language my DDs pick up.....

notsohappymummy · 16/04/2011 18:57

I was in the garden today, weeding an overgrown flowerbed and was talking to the ladybirds(3). I didn't want to upset them but needed to remove the greenery. I feel sure anyone within earshot would have thought I was a fool. I also talk to my Guinea Pigs as if they understand me!!!:)
I have older children both in their 20's and I used to talk to them all the time from day one!!!

NinkyNonker · 17/04/2011 17:13

I do, I do have to check myself when she isn't with me though!

Morloth · 18/04/2011 05:37

I never shut up, with or without a baby.

Teddy, my DS2 is 1 now and doesn't have any real words.

He seems fine to me. However, if you are worried (and you are the best person to know) then perhaps get him checked out for your own piece of mind.

Flip

1 2 3