Thursday, January 5, 2012

Parent Speak

Before having Eloise there was a whole list of things I saw other parents doing that I vowed not to repeat. Dancing like an idiot in public for the sake of their entertainment, licking sticky food off my child's finger/face/arm, letting them put something dirty into their mouth to keep them happy. But my biggest pet peeve? When Mothers spoke to their children in the third person ("Mommy will do it, sweetie"). Why? I couldn't understand why these parents could not just say 'I'.

Well, younger, misinformed self, you do it because you have to. Does chewing on an exercise band keep your baby happy so you can finish a workout? Fine. Do you really want to try and get out a clump of rice cereal when it turns to cement in their hair? No. Does doing the twist in the middle of the grocery store make your screaming baby laugh? Perfect.

As for the third person thing, I've figured that out too. For the same reason we constantly repeat the names of things we see ("there's the doggy!" "where's your nose?" "Da-da."), we just want our babies to know who we are. "Mommy loves it."

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