Baby Blog

In the last few weeks I find myself shadowed by a toddling sometimes crawling baby boy with some form of infant Tourettes syndrome. Without warning or practiced whispers my son will repeat random words. I’m learning to watch what I say and understand what I hear.

Everyone warned me that when you have children you really have to watch what you say. And of course, the obvious stuff is well, obvious: no curse words. I mean who needs their infant son yelling expletives from the grocery cart right? That was easier to cutout than I thought it would be. It’s more the things you don’t realize you say that catch you off guard.

At story time last week I had baby Nik sitting on my lap, trying to get him to concentrate on the narration when he begin talking over the story teller. This isn’t unusual, he’s a baby learning how to talk and isn’t quite aware of what is appropriate. I gently whispered in his ear to listen to the story and he shouted out “Deus!” in a growling voice.

My friend sitting next to me looked at me grinning as she suppressed a laugh and asked me “did he say Deus?”  I nodded, rolled my eyes and finally realized what my son was yelling around the grocery store the other day. Our cat’s name is Amadeus and apparently I spend far too much time yelling at her to stop scratching my furniture.

His little impression of me yelling at the cat put my friend into hysterics as she  knows both my son and my cat quite well but all I could think was that all I do all day is yell at my cat. That’s what my son chooses to repeat when he’s frustrated as that is all he knows to express that emotion.

And I have provided that to him. Makes you think; not just about your choice of vocabulary when around children but about what your child thinks about you.

Put it this way, I’m glad that my husband and I don’t bicker enough for it to register on his baby radar or that we swear or yell uncontrollably around our son but I do know that perhaps I need to provide my son with better ways to communicate. Instead of yelling at my cat I should explain that I am frustrated that her scratching my new armchair upsets me.

Who wants their baby yelling out a cat’s name whenever he is upset for the next few years? Not me. It’s about what you don’t say but it is also about what you do say, how you say it and what it teaches your child.

Instead of telling my son to use his words, I should learn to use mine first so he can learn from example.

Well duh.