Okay so this has bothered me alot lately and I am really hoping that I don't become like this now that I am nearing having my last and final child. There is a huge trend in babying your "baby" or your youngest. I mean I don't think we let whitney get away with as much as the younger ones and it seems to get easier to slip into this with each kid. I understand we do this because time goes by so fast and soon our babies are in kindergarten and growing so super fast. It's our natural reaction to try to slow it all down. But as mothers does any of us wonder what we do to our kids by doing this?? The long-term affects it may have on them as they get older and face life's dissapointments.
My biggest pet peeve is "baby talk."
As a mother of a child with a speech delay-it made myself look at how I was talking to my children and if that was in any way affecting how they decided to respond. Now I admit that I didn't baby talk to my kids all that much-I'm not saying i didn't ever do it once. But it somehow felt immature of me to do so -for some reason it made me feel stupid, so I just didn't do it. I am not against it in the 1st year of a childs life. But am I wrong in thinking-it's just not something you should do after your children reach a certain age-I mean c'mon a 3 year old is not a baby..even if they are still your "baby."
I guess it just bothers me when I hear a mom speak to her 4-5 year old this way-it's just plain unnerving to me. I know I am venting -but can someone explain to me why they feel it necessary to continue it when their children are totally capable of understanding and speaking "adult" language?? Aren't they a little curious as to how this affects them in developing language skills or if it mentally makes them believe they are younger than they are?? Or if other kids make fun of how "they talk." Who would willingly put their child through this?? I know what it's like to watch kids make fun of my child because she cannot keep up with them conversationally and it's hurtful for both of us. SO please when you child turns 2...please please speak to them on their level.
Now there are so many other things that you can do to baby your older children and I was wondering what are the big ones that bother you??
And just to step off my soap box for a bit-I do admit to helping Amber get her "tough" shoes on when she's having a hard time of it. So really I am not trying to be judgemental- this is one of the pet peeves that I have yet to get over -sorry.
8 comments:
I must say I do agree with you on the whole pet pevee. My little cousin is mentally challenged, the doctors say that it could have been from her parents "babying" her because she was a little bit delayed than others. So now me & my fiancee read to our daughter everyday.
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I totally agree! I hate baby talking and don't like it when people do it to my kids. How do they learn English? Oh, yeah, from Dora and Elmo, right? As long as it's not teletubbies we should be alright.
One of my pet peeves is people who let their kids have a bottle until they are way too old (like 3!!!) and don't just say that it's time for the sippy cup now. Or people whose kids use a sippy cup in church and the kid is more than 5!
It bugs me when people don't cut their sons' hair and it grows really long so the kid looks like a girl without the bows.
Immodest baby clothes bug me too. Babies really don't need a bikini. Those rolls are just for those at home to enjoy.
Yeah, so many things annoy me too.
Good luck with this one. (And if you do these things, I won't say anything, really.)
Luckily Nadell-I don't do (and haven't done) any of those things. Pacifiers are another one I don't get-when kids are older than two. I took mine away at 5-6 months. But then again 2 out 3 of my girls wouldn't take one in the first place so it wasn't something that was ever a huge deal for me anyway.
I wouldn't say I used "baby talk" with Maddy but I didn't realize how much I WAS talking down to her until she started Speech Therapy and now I realize that just because her words don't come out like my words do I don't need to "baby" down the word for her to understand she understands just fine and will (and does) say the word properly when she is physically able to do so. Sometimes it just takes an eye opener like that to make a mom aware of things like this and if you don't have a developmentally challenged child sometimes it is easy to look past the potential damage. I hear ya...but I also think to each his own.
I am cracking up at NaDell's comment! I am right there with her. And about the pacifier thing, mine was HIGHLY attached, but was weaned at 10 months. I don't get why they need it. I was in church one day where he continued to scream as he had it in his mouth. Ding, ding, ding, NO LONGER PACIFYING, time to remove!
And yeah, I think I had the opposite problem. I didn't break things down in short enough phrases for McKay. I'd say, hey, do you really want to go to the park today and play with all of the equipment? Yeah, like he can get that. Instead I'd just say park-play? Much, much easier to understand! lol but I never said does my itty bitty wittle baby wanna go to the parky-warky and play? Wasn't my style! lol
See, I'm just not a baby talk kind of person. I'll say crazy fun things to my babies while I'm changing their diaper or getting them dressed, but I don't even use baby talk on them when they're babies. Just because they can't talk themselves, it doesn't mean they're stupid! Their brains are learning about language from day one, and we should do our best to teach them.
NaDell, I'm with you on a lot of those, and I laughed out loud about the Dora comment.
My baby pet peeve right now, and people may not agree with me, because it's uber trendy, but I don't like it when baby girls come to church with flowers attached to their heads that are BIGGER than their heads. I see five or six of them each week, and it drives me nuts!
Those giant flowers growing out of baby heads bug me too, but they are so popular with so many people (and I didn't think of it) that I didn't say that. Just so you know, I agree with you. You aren't alone.
Oh, here's another one, dressing your baby in pajamas at church. I LOVE getting babies dressed up in dresses and church clothes. It's SO much cuter and when is it that they learn to wear nice clothes to church?
Oh, I am with ya. My older kids will mimick my 22 month-old's version of words when they talk to him, and I ALWAYS tell them to sayt the words right, and don't talk to him like a baby. It bugs me...!!
On another note. I HATE PARENTS THAT DON'T DISCIPLINE THEIR CHILDREN. This could also fall in the catagory of PARENTS THAT NEGLECT THEIR CHILDREN. We have friends that are always complaining about how "rowdy" or "naughty" their kids are, but they never follow through...they do a lot of yelling, but don't really address the problem. Or there is the ones that sweet talk their child when they did something wrong...like the SIXTEENTH time...or finally, the neighbor kids who at the age of 2 are left outside for hours on end unsupervized, knocking on my door all throughout the day...I have often contemplated calling the police and just saying..."Will you pick these poor kids up, and just see how long it takes their parents to realize they are missing??"
SIIIIIGGGGHHHHH....now that I got all that off my chest....
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