Sometimes parents have specific preferences of how they want their children to be raised. They might not let them eat candy or have too much screen time, etc. Everything goes fine until they have to leave the child for someone else to babysit. Grandparents often like to spoil their grandchildren and parents might get annoyed by that.
One mom got annoyed that her sister doesn’t use baby talk when she talks with her niece. What bugged her the most was that she did that with her cats. She asked the internet if she was wrong for getting mad at her sister for it. Reddit’s verdict was that she had no right to demand such a thing and should apologize for being ridiculous.
More info: Reddit
This mom went to the internet to find out if she was unreasonable to get mad at her sister for not using baby talk with her daughter
Image credits: Nenad Stojkovic (not the actual photo)
The Original Poster (OP) is a 28-year-old mom who has an older sister who comes to look after her daughter, who is about 3 years old, from time to time. She tries to not call her if she has any other options as the sister isn’t really a kid person, but knows she can trust her as she still loves her niece.
You would think that this is very considerate of the mom to not default to a family member who is not good with kids to take care of her daughter for a while, but she has a concern.
The OP's sister babysits her 3-year-old niece from time to time and is the emergency person she goes to
Image credits: throwawaybabysister
The mom is annoyed that her sister doesn’t talk with her niece in baby talk. She speaks to her niece as if she was talking to an adult. What bothers the OP even more is that when she confronted her sister about this, she answered that she just treats the child like a person, implying that baby talk is stupid.
The mom then pointed out that her sister talks with her cats in baby talk, so she can do it, but the sister’s argument was that the cats are not learning how to speak, so this isn't comparable.
But the mom is annoyed that her sister always talks to her daughter in adult speech
Image credits: throwawaybabysister
The OP feels that her sister loves her cats more than her niece because she doesn’t show affection in her voice to the child like she does to her cats. The sister disagrees and can’t see where the problem is.
The dad doesn’t seem to have an issue with that as he wanted his wife to step back and not escalate the conflict, because at least the sister is willing to be called in for emergencies.
Image credits: throwawaybabysister
She feels she doesn't love her niece as much because she is able to use baby talk with her cats
Image credits: throwawaybabysister
So the OP asked the internet if she was being unreasonable for getting mad over this one thing. Most of the redditors who read the story agreed that the mom was in the wrong and claimed that speaking to the child in a normal way is more beneficial to them anyway.
It is not actually quite clear which baby talk the mother is referring to—the one where parents just talk gibberish or just when parents talk in a high-pitched voice, because research quite clearly shows that speaking words that have no meaning or grammatical structure is not beneficial to a child’s development. However, researchers still say that in order for the babies to be engaged in the act of communication, parents should maintain a high-pitched voice and a more exaggerated intonation while talking slowly and clearly with correct grammar and real words.
The husband thinks this isn't an issue worth fighting but the mom has her doubts
Image credits: throwawaybabysister
Parents shouldn’t be afraid that their children won’t understand them because they won’t understand the gibberish speech either; however, letting them live in an environment of proper speech will allow them to catch on to the language more easily and will help them with their development.
We are interested in what you think about this story and about the topic of talking with toddlers as if they were adults. Do you agree with the redditors who condemned the OP to be the jerk in the situation or do you feel like she can be excused? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!
Most of other redditors agreed with the sister and found the mom to be in the wrong here
