Any non-rude way to ask my mom to stop using baby voice?
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Anonymous
| My mom talks to my two-year-old in a baby voice. Little is "widdle." Yes is "yesh." She's not around him enough to actually affect his speech, but the baby voice still drives me around the bend. I don't want to be an ass or hurt her feelings (she's very sensitive), but I spend the entire time gritting my teeth when she's talking to my son. |
Anonymous
| White lie time: tell her your ped overheard you talking in baby voice and corrected you saying not to do that. |
Anonymous
|
"His teacher noticed a problem with his strong "l's" and "s's", I wonder if that's where it's coming from?" Okay, totally passive aggressive. Whatever. |
Anonymous
| Just tell her that more recent studies say that kids speak earlier and better when the adults use adult voices. |
Anonymous
| Any chance you could just have a glass of wine and relax? Hope your son cuts you some slack when you get older. |
Anonymous
| I would kinda just get over it. There's really no good argument for restricting her speech. |
Anonymous
| Oh my gosh, this grates on my nerves. MIL and SIL don't always use a baby voice, but they ALWAYS use an incredibly exaggerated sing-songy tone. I have talked to them about the baby voice with the reasons above, but I haven't figured out how to talk about the tone without being really rude. Ugh! |
Anonymous
| i find baby voices incredibly irritating too. but i'm not sure there's a way to address this without appearing to be rude. i can't imagine it's actually harmful to your kid, so trying to argue that the pediatrician is opposed to it seems like kind of a stretch. i feel your pain, but it might just have to be something you learn to breathe through and accept... |
Anonymous
| Let it go. She is a grandma, she gets to do annoying things and this one isn't hurting anyone. |
Anonymous
| no. |
Anonymous
Gah! This would drive me crazy, too. I'm pretty direct, and would just say that I find it annoying, but acknowledge that it's probably just me... can't claim that it impacts my child any. And then let it be. I think my mother and I have a pretty open relationship. She tells me when I look like hell, you know  and I am very clear that this has nothing to do with how much she loves me.
So if you have that kind of relationship, I'd just say something to get it off your chest. And then be done with it: she is who she is. Worry about the neglected and mistreated children of the world, instead. Every time she says "widdle" and you want to scream, pop a $5 into your jar for a local foster kid's charity.
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Anonymous
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The sing song tone actually helps babies learn.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4556687 That said my MIL is supremely annoying. She is constantly talking about my baby in the third person, to adults, in baby talk with her own made up bad grammar. Every sentence starts with "Oh! Him want..." |
Anonymous
sing song is different than baby talk. |
Anonymous
OP here. Yes to the bad grammar too. She also uses caveman sentence structure, like "Baby want cookie." I know Harvey Karp recommends the caveman talk for pre and barely verbal toddlers, but my son is already speaking in sentences and using correct pronouns. His grammar is better than hers. As much as it all drives me crazy, I'm going to try to just let it go. |
Anonymous
| How often is she around your child? If it's once a week, I'd let it go. Your child isn't likely to pick up bad habits from something that infrequent. But if it's more often, I would totally say that you spoke with your pediatrician and was told not to do that for these valid reasons, X, Y and Z. |