Ever since my baby niece came home to live with us my oldest sister has this horrible habit of screeching the word baby whenever she sees Scarlet. It is loud, high pitched, long, and down right nerve shocking. I despise it. I want her to stop. And it gets worse. She talks nonstop when in Scarlett's presence. The first few times that she talked for Scarlett were funny, I could go as far as to say cute, but now that we are finishing the second week, not so much. Now you might think two weeks it can't be so bad. Wrong. She does it multiple times within a minute. She will leave a room poke her head out and scream "Baaaabbbby" and then when she comes back in less than five minutes she will scream again. I tried to tell her to not talk like that but she apparently doesn't even notice how obnoxious and odious her voice gets.
The mother of Scarlett, the middle daughter of the three of us, decided to be a smart ass and pretend that the only other way to talk beside that annoyingly high pitched one was in a monotone. Really? How about you talk like you would an adult. I read that if you do not use baby talk on kids then they learn to speak faster and better than if you use baby talk.
But I digress. I just can't stand how so many of my fellow women must talk in the same breathing space as a baby or small furry animals.
Although I have to say that if or when I have children I will not allow anyone that speaks in baby talk to see him/her. I don't care if that is my own mother. I will not punish myself with that agony around my own children.
Researchers have discovered that babies learn to talk faster when adults use "parentese", but it sounds like your sister is exaggerating the natural higher-pitched, sing-song voice people sometimes call "baby-talk". It has been shown that babies focus their attention on adult voices when they use "parentese". Talking in a monotone deprives baby of the sense of rhythm and pitch of human speech and the opportunity to "hear" single syllables in words. Maybe if you just asked your sister to tone it down a little, rather than stop altogether, then everyone would benefit, including the baby!
ReplyDeleteBy the way. I absolutely love the design of your website!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice! Lately I have just tried not to be in the same room with Jessica (oldest sister) and Scarlett (the baby) as much as I can. However, on the plus side ever since I ranted like a lunatic I have not been as annoyed as I was. It also helps that Jessica has been working a lot lately and Laura (baby's mother) has been going out with Scarlett more.
ReplyDeleteWhy thank you. It took me forever to settle on this design but I thought that it was the cat's meow.
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