Daughter using annoying baby voice

[eldorado02]

I’m at my wits end with the baby voice my daughter (nearly 6) is using. Has anyone been through the same thing and have any advice to offer?

I’ve tried refusing to respond if she uses the baby voice (eg I won’t play with you unless you speak properly) and being honest as to why it’s so -fucking- annoying (it makes you sound stupid and you are not stupid), but to no avail.

She says it’s because she wants to be a baby again 🙄

"You'll always be my baby, even when you're a grown up"

"I can't understand you very well when you speak like that, let me know when you can use your voice so I can hear you and I'll help you"

Maybe asking her to tell you more about what she means when she says she wants to be a baby again might help? Babies get a lot of attention and security so she might be trying to communicate that she needs more of that. Growing up can be scary, so she might be deliberately regressing in order to avoid that too. Babies don't have to deal with any problems! There might be issues at school, or with friends, or maybe a sibling or some other person or thing she feels she needs to compete with. I bet it is annoying, but there's probably some underlying reason for her wanting to be a baby again. Get to the bottom of that and you might help her stop using the voice.

DS(6) uses baby voice sometimes and that is only coz sone of friends thought it was funny imitation! Thats fine if its between themselves but at home it drives me nuts!
At my lowest i go "do you want nappies and dummy to go with it?" 🫢

At my best, i tell him its not the right way to speak if hes planning on growing up and being a big boy.

Both work sometimes or not. At the end of the day they are small and will grow out of the habit!

I don't suppose you've just had a new baby?

I did that for ages as a child. Then just stopped. No harm in it.

I would not be able to 'hear' her when she does it but nothing else.

Yeah DS (6) does this. I just constantly ask him to repeat himself in his proper voice.

Very annoying.

DD5 does this, mostly I ignore it or say I can't understand it. She does like to be treated as a baby though.

DD6 does this. Harmless but annoying - it's half her exploring what it means to be a baby when she's entering the world of school and independence, half schmaltzy American stuff she's seen on TV.

No way around it, just one of those things. You can try saying you don't understand that voice.

DD6 does this. It’s very annoying. She is asked to speak properly every time. It makes no difference, in fact it’s probably making it worse, but I can’t let it slide as it’s sooooooooo annoying.

My son has done this - I just pretended I couldn’t understand him. He got bored.

Awww

Don't try to shame her out of it. Hide your annoyance. Just reply normally to her and get her to repeat anything you can't understand. Extra hugs and cuddles.

She's telling you she needs extra affection and nurturing. She can't be any more obvious, can she?

It will pass. She won't be talking like this when she's twenty! In fact she's due to enter the bossy schoolteacher phase soon, so steel yourself!

Sounds harmless, why do you need her to stop?

It doesn’t make her sound stupid and you definitely shouldn’t be saying that to her!! I still talk in a ‘baby voice’ sometimes and I’ll be 30 soon… I get that from an adult it may sound very odd and annoying but it just happens sometimes. It’s likely an autism thing with me though as it only happens with really familiar people and usually after having to use my energy in a social or stressful situation 🤷‍♀️

Because it's soooooo annoying!!

This

Thanks everyone for your insights - much appreciated. I disagree that it’s harmless, but I do take on board others’ opinions. I’m
still going to discourage her from using the baby voice as it’s so fucking annoying, but I’ll do it with as much kindness and grace I can muster!