Baby Talk

Do you have baby talk appear randomly in your house?

I mean it’s super cute and exciting when it is your actual baby doing it. The joy the first time they say dada or mama is unparallelled.

But by the time you have 12, 10, 7 and 5 year old, I really don’t want to hear baby talk.

Unless they are talking to one of the animals.

I suppose when they are talking to their stuffed animals or playing a game, it’s tolerable.

At least a little bit.

But when they are talking to me and asking for something, it is just, well, super annoying and irritating.

Yes it tells me that they are either wheedling or in need of some extra attention. That something is going on and they feel the need to regress at least for a few minutes.

But at the same token it just really pushes my buttons. It gets to sitting on my last nerve even faster than just regular whiny behavior. Or just general complaints. It is just so annoying!

Especially because more often than not, the baby talk arrives on days when I am doing something else. Days when I have a lot on my plate, when perhaps another sister is in need of more attention because well when it rains it pours right?

And then out pops the baby talk. I try and wait and see first, see if it is part of a game, or really a way for them to state their needs for extra attention and love. I try to take a deep breath or 3 to make sure that I am calm before responding, because I know it is going to hit my trigger points. I try to listen beyond the words and hear what other clues they are trying to tell me.

Maybe they are going through a growth spurt and are truly hungry and for some reason this is how they are going to ask for more food today?

Maybe they are still recovering from being sick the week before and just like me their brain isn’t firing on all cylinders yet and they truly are not running at 100%?

Maybe they had a bad social interaction a few minutes or days ago and this is how it is coming out?

Maybe they don’t have the skills yet to have things come out better, the words, the tools, the self awareness to know what they truly need?

Maybe they just need another cuddle. Lately I have found that all of my girls have really upped their cuddle needs and that they need far more cuddles than usual. I am unsure if this is because it is winter and they are just running cold or if it truly is just a time in their life where they need more cuddling.

Touch is not my dominate love language so when a lot of them need a lot of touch all at once by the end of the day I don’t want any one else to touch me. Especially if there has been a lot of squirming in all that touching. Sometimes I think I wear all this extra padding on my body because of all the squirming I am on the receiving end of and my body is just trying to protect itself from the inevitability of all these girls and their elbows. Of course that may be wishful thinking as well.

I don’t have the answers. I don’t know why baby talk shows up, and why it seems to go straight to a nerve point for me. I have a bit more tolerance for it than my hubby, who can’t even stand hearing it if it is part of a game, and I try to let that go at least for a little while.

But I do know that often it just needs a liberal helping of cuddles. Maybe some read aloud time and snuggling too. Occasionally just going outside really helps.

What about you? What do you do when baby talk shows up in your house?