3rd Trimester
Vent: Co-irker talks in baby talk
It drives me insane! This woman is in her 50's! When she calls me she ALWAYS says "Heh-whoa Mawissa!" Then she will speak normal, then go back to baby talk to say goodbye.
I always want to scream at her and say "My name is Melissa! Not Mawissa!"
My daughter has also picked up this habit from someone at school. I can't stress to her enough how much this is not okay!
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Re: Vent: Co-irker talks in baby talk
Please keep your LOs RF as long as possible
This.. I'd do it back. Ever since I got preg my grandmother has talked to me in baby talk. It drives me effing crazy. I get she's old and stuff.. and I can get baby talking umm well..the baby! But talking to me like that just isn't cool.
LOL! I haven't thought of that yet! That would be funny. But then it would suck if she liked it and kept on doing it.
Yeah, it's really weird. I cringe when I see her number on the caller ID. I actually let it go to voice mail most of the time and then email her back just so I don't have to talk to her.
Raeleigh Elizabeth http://theturnerpage.blogspot.com/
lol... It would drive me crazy too.
I have a male friend who is 40 and talks baby talk to my belly every time he sees me..... wierd!
MIL does this too - all the time. I love her to death, but this is the one thing that really annoys me about her. I hear her doing it to my DS and it really gets to me. I don't want him growing up speaking like that. I'm very proud of my proper English, and I want DS to grow up knowing how to speak properly. I wouldn't mind so much (I know it's common, and in small amounts I'd have no problem), but when I return to work, she'll be watching him, so he'll be hearing baby talk all day. I worry that it'll impede his speech and he won't be able to pronounce a lot of his consonants.
I might need to have DH talk to her before we start leaving DS with her. I doubt she'll be able to break the habit though - she's been doing it ever since I've known her, whether there are babies around or not. I'll probably just have to be vigilant at home so he hears the proper way to talk.
I heard this over and over in all my undergrad child development classes.
Etsy shop
Yuck. That's just annoying!
My EX MIL used to talk baby talk to me...every time she'd call, she'd say "Hewwo Nowie! It's your favowite mommie in law!" I wanted to pull my hair out every time she'd talk to me. She eventually got the whole family into it and started introducing me to people as Nowie. I would just have to smile and when she wasn't looking, say, "Actually, it's Natalie", because my EXMIL got her feelings hurt really easily.(and I was waaay to nice to her, but that's another story:) Bleh
I'm really glad that my new MIL knows how to speak proper English, and she will teach my baby girl how to pronounce all her consonants and vowels!
my MIL is a Kindergarted teacher and she ALWAYS talks to me in baby talk.
I have been pretty nice about it so far but sometimes I just want to scream at her "I am 23 and have a child of my own you can talk to me like an adult. Just because I married your child doesnt mean I am a child'
Ahhh sorry I just needed to vent. I was trying to vent to Dh about this yesterday but he is so used to it its no biggie to him.
Ugh I hope one day they get it lol
i HATE that!! I have a co-worker that also does this, she's 30+yrs old and she talks baby talk to EVERYONE, when her husband calls...when her kids call...when she talks to our boss. And no, I do not talk to her, she annoys me too much, so much in fact that I have no desire to ever talk to her unless I absolutely have to about work related issues.
Try to keep your sanity, I know it does suck.
Gross! I worked with a girl who did this. I wanted to scream "I am not your boyfriend. I am not your mom. I do not find you remotely cute or charming. STFU!!!!"
Luckily she quit before it got to that point. We still mimick her to this day.
I HATE baby talk! DS is 8 weeks old, and for the last 9 weeks my MIL has done this... in a falsetto voice that makes me cringe. Now don't get me wrong, I soften & "sweeten" my voice when I'm talking to him, but I don't change the way words are pronounced, or change my grammar.
"Did him gets daa heecumps?" Seriously?!! WTF is a heecump?
The one that bothers me most is "zoo gieg" when he sneezes. I assume this is supposed to be a form of gesundheit... Luckily he's not to the stage of forming words yet, and also she only keeps him while I work Sat & Sun. Basically, I'm going to have to make sure he hears enough proper speech to counter her gibberish.
I'm ready to climb the walls, too, buddy.
<a href="http://s124.photobucket.com/albums/p2/thcity/Mobile Uploads/?action=viewWTF??? LOL u ppl r mad about baby talk? How about some English? If you're going to abbreviate everything beyond the point of comprehension then it might as well be baby talk. You cannot be upset about baby talk if you're not going to take the time to type an extra letter or two, both are signs of laziness and "cuteness", so get over yourself.
The above does not apply to those who typed a coherent, grammatically correct and properly spelled complaint or comment.
I've heard the opposite, that it helps (small) babies learn to communicate. Maybe that's a different kind of baby talk, though, like the cooing.
However, I hate it too. I feel for you that would drive me crazy. That's just plain weird. Why don't you ask recommend a good speech therapist to her, who could help her with her "Ls".
Baby talk to another adult is just plain WEIRD.
I have had people talk baby talk with my son and I tell them that's its hard enough he has to learn a whole language without having to learn a bunch of extra words that don't mean anything. Usually they understand.
lol.. I love how you called her the "co-irker" lol
Yep, I've read that, too.
Multiple things from someone jumping in from another board (older and hopefully wiser since I've "been there, done that" for two generations and two decades work experience...)
For the co-irker, if you don't have a relationship where you can simply sit down with her and tell her how much it bothers you, talk to your supervisor and have the discussion managerially. Your manager talks to her manager who talks to her and lets her know that people are bothered (assuming you're not the only one she does this to.) It's a business relationship and it affects business relationships.
For the sister-in-law...is there no way you can talk directly to her instead of venting to your husband? "Listen, SIL, I love you, but the baby talk kills me. Please don't do it." Lather, rinse, repeat. Especially if it's the only thing that bothers you about her. If not, choose your battles - deal with the worst and ignore the least.
For the baby-talkers...yes, there are two kinds of "baby talk" that are being addressed. The negative baby-talk is the type that people use to their puppies and babies "Wook at the widdle iddy-bitty babbikins. Oh, such a koootie-patootie-ooky-booky-baby-waby." (Okay, so that's exceptionally bad but you get it. lol. No words and nothing that can be related to anything else.) Or, in the case of the OP..."Hi Mawissa." Bad baby talk. Mispronunciation will lead to the child to mispronouncing or using replacement words, and not developing proper enunciation.
"Good babytalk" which the speech pathologist and ECE student reference is simply raising the pitch in the voice to be attractive to the baby's hearing (e.g. "cooing"). In a pitch one or two levels above normal, get down to her level and say "Hi, sweetie. I'm your Aunt (or okay, you can stretch it to "Auntie" for baby) Melissa." (See? Real words, said in a manner a baby can appreciate.) She learns that you are Melissa, she learns how to say Melissa, won't be challenged to develop her "L" sounds as she gets older. When she's still young she will be saying Mawissa or otherwise shorten and mispronounce the name, but as she gets older and develops, she'll learn how to wrap her tongue and mouth to the proper sounds. She'll be learning real words and developing her vocabulary, adjusting it to those around her. It's the pitch of the voice that attracts her aurally, not the words themselves. You can use regular words, she'll pick them up -- she'll even work out the meaning depending on how you use them.
Shoot, by three years old, my GD (who was living with us) was playing games to pronounce onomotapoeia, gastroendoduodenoscopy and supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. She could say them by repeating them after Grandpa (Grampoo, by the way...and I'm Grammoo - lol. Nicknames she gave us as her special thing.) and by no means is she exceptional to be able to do it. She's seven now and she'll jokingly say "I wuv you Grampoo" when she's being super silly but she's just as capable of being serious, cuddling and saying "I love you Grandpa." It's a matter of how you play with them.
Just tell her how you feel about how she talks to you! That is the best way to handle this. It might hurt her feelings a little but she will get over it. I have dealt with this kinda thing all of my life with people saying my name wrong intentionally and making up stupid nicknames for me. I just flat out tell them "It's Mikhaila, not Mickey." and they get the point.
,,,maybe I come off as a ***, but I don't care!