The post you’ve all been waiting for….

Please don’t tell me I’m the only one who does this. 

What? You ask. Do
what?

This…

{as said to Porter}
“Porter, please bring that over to Mama.”
“Don’t hit Mama.”
“Mama said NO!”
"Mama loves you!"

etc. etc. etc.

I can’t stop! Seriously! You know what’s so
funny?? I HATE Elmo because of
that. (Well, that and his whiny,
incessant voice). And now WE’RE doing
it. Ryan will deny any participation in
speaking with a lack of pronouns, but he does do it. I swear. The same as how he “never swears in front of
Porter” Want to know why? Because he’s
standing BEHIND him. Or BESIDE him. PFFFTT!!!!

So, along with letting Porter watch Play With Me Sesame and
Sesame Street, with Elmo saying “Elmo LOVES to colr” and Cookie Monster saying
“ME want cookie!”, I’ve begun speaking that same language. Jess and I have discussed Elmo, and my
stance on it is that Sesame Street is an educational show, with somewhat of a
curriculum to each episode. There has
to be SOME reason that they plan their characters to speak without pronouns. However, upon researching this, all I’ve
found is this…

Why does Elmo refer to himself in the third person?
Won’t this teach kids improper English?    
Elmo mimics the behavior of many preschoolers. Like most
three-and-a-half-year-olds, he doesn’t always have the mature skills or
knowledge to speak "proper" English. However, cast members and many
of the other Muppets do demonstrate the proper usage of the English language.

Interesting.

So, I posted on Scrapjazz. I knew someone over there would prove that I was not the only one who
speaks like this. Someone would have
some sort of rationale as to why parents do this with young ones.

And, well, we did come up with some sort of reasoning. First off, its basically the only way for
babies to learn “your name”. I mean,
they aren’t just going to come up with “Mama” and “Dada” (or mommy and daddy or
whatever) on their own. By referring to
yourself as that… sans-pronouns, that helps them identify YOU… what to call
you. So, in a way, speaking that way
helps babies. If you always said to
your infant… “I love you” or “I’m going to get you a bottle” or “I want a kiss”
or whatever… what are they going to call you? “I”! and Mama doesn’t want to be
called ‘I’. So, simply put… it’s a way
of teaching little ones what adults want to be called. 

I think, to me, that’s the simplest explanation to why
parents speak this way to babies/young toddlers. 

Branching off from that theory is, as Sesame Street
said… babies/toddlers don’t always have
knowledge of how to use proper pronouns. By speaking without “I, we, me, you” etc, it simplifies that. However, continue to do that once they’re a
little older, and I’m sure you’ll have one screwed up kid. Who always refers to himself as “Baby” or
“Joey” or whatever.

Anyway, I think that once there becomes a little more “conversation”
between Porter and I, I’ll drop the “mama” thing. And he’ll start to figure out the pronouns, and things will be
good. And we’ll no longer sound like idiots talking.

So… what are YOUR theories? Do you talk to your kids in “third person” aka… lacking
pronouns? Why or why not? When did you stop? Or, are they in highschool and you still talk to them that way? Speak up Speak out!