Sunday, July 10, 2005
"Oh Dear"
"Oh Dear" seems to be a popular part of the limited vocabulary of 10 month olds (gleaned from my huge sample of two: nephew and next door neighbour).
It accompanies any small accident; toppling towers of bricks, spitting masticated salmon onto the carpet, fumbling a raw egg from the fridge onto the floor, and a brake-less Thomas the Tank Engine crashing into a river ("Oh Dear. Splash!" to this last).
Adults encourage this. A chorus of "Oh Dear" about juice spilled all over the table is thought to aid my nephew's language development (we're a very nurturing family). His comment was, "Oh.... My.... God". Difficult to reprimand blasphemy while choking on your broccoli with mirth.
But I'm not sure these are 'accidents': I've detected a new tone that should concern the parents. "Oh Dear" is now accompanied by catching an adults eye, and has a calculating query about it. Not long before it comes as a slightly contemplative challenge, 'just how bad is that thing', 'and this?', 'what about if I do this instead'. Screaming 2 year old tantrums are not far away.
Lovely being an aunt and spectulating from a comfortable distance.
It accompanies any small accident; toppling towers of bricks, spitting masticated salmon onto the carpet, fumbling a raw egg from the fridge onto the floor, and a brake-less Thomas the Tank Engine crashing into a river ("Oh Dear. Splash!" to this last).
Adults encourage this. A chorus of "Oh Dear" about juice spilled all over the table is thought to aid my nephew's language development (we're a very nurturing family). His comment was, "Oh.... My.... God". Difficult to reprimand blasphemy while choking on your broccoli with mirth.
But I'm not sure these are 'accidents': I've detected a new tone that should concern the parents. "Oh Dear" is now accompanied by catching an adults eye, and has a calculating query about it. Not long before it comes as a slightly contemplative challenge, 'just how bad is that thing', 'and this?', 'what about if I do this instead'. Screaming 2 year old tantrums are not far away.
Lovely being an aunt and spectulating from a comfortable distance.
# posted by Liz @ 6:12 pm 
