dear little leah,
i try to be a positive person - especially when it comes to the efforts of others. i really, truly try. but there is one thing that really gets to me and i have a hard time seeing the positive in it. often, when people talk to you, they do so in a voice like they are talking to a baby. you know, that really high-pitched, sqeaky tone with lots of oooohs and aaaahs.
i understand that adults often talk to children in a different way than they talk to adults. and they talk to babies in a different way than they talk to children or adults. but, i'm pretty sure last time i checked, you weren't a baby. you are a child. and you deserve to be spoken to just as any other child. i don't mind treating you like a child - maybe speaking with some excitement in your voice or with a less extravagant vocabulary. but i do not understand dumbing it down to the level of an infant.
i don't know what to do, leah. it really drives me up a wall. i know they probably don't know what to do and in all honesty, i guess i'm glad they're talking to you at all, not just ignoring and avoiding you like some.
but, because you don't respond doesn't mean you don't hear or understand.
does it bother you as much as it bothers me, leah? do you even care? do you want to turn around and talk to them like they're a baby or punch them in the face or kick them in the shins? i do. maybe they don't even know they're doing it. maybe they think because you can't do or say all the things a normal three and a half year old does and says, that you don't understand. maybe.
maybe they think they're being more kind by responding to you in that way. maybe.
maybe they honestly, truly just aren't even aware that they're even speaking to you differently than they speak to their own three year old two feet away. maybe.
i don't know.
and i wish it didn't bother me so, but it does. and my only solution right now is to suck it up and be an example. to speak to you how i would like them to speak to you. and to treat you with the respect and understanding a three year old deserves. and i'll refrain from the face punching and shin kicking - for now.
i love you, little leah.
love,
mommy
oh no. you probably need to kick me in the shins. and i'll let you cause i baby talk without knowing. i'm sorry. i don't think of leah as a baby. i think i do it cause i talk to babies all day. i'm sorry. no more baby talk cause the bean is a big kid and should be treated as such:) love you bean. two more weeks till we can dance together!
ReplyDeleteOh Little Leah, just when I think you can't get any cuter your mom takes this picture. You are truly adorable!!!
ReplyDeleteSo many people talk to Annie like she is a baby or sometimes they just by pass her all together. I always try to bring her back into the conversation and "mature it up a bit" but I agree with your mommy - I want to kick them in the shins too!!!
ha! kelli, i'm not talking about you. and really, almost everyone does it {including ryan tonight}. i know lots of my friends/family have infants around and get used to talking like that...just hard when they don't talk normally to their two and three year old and then turn around and treat leah like a baby. just a frustration i had to get off my back. :) i'll refrain from kicking you in the shins when i see you next month.
ReplyDeletethanks, i'd appreciate it. i like my shins.
ReplyDelete