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A Reddit post of a woman who got "mad" at her sister for "not using baby talk" when speaking to her daughter has gone viral. The post is getting a lot of attention online from Redditors.
The post, which has over 9,500 upvotes, was shared to the subreddit "Am I the A**hole" on January 31 by u/throwawaybabysister. It's titled, "AITA for getting mad at my sister for not using baby talk when she speaks to my daughter?"
The Redditor, a 28-year-old female, has a 31-year-old sister who watches the original poster's (OP) daughter about once a month, revealing she's a "backup backup babysitter since she's not really a kid person."
She also revealed in a comment to another Redditor that her daughter is about to turn 3. The OP said she knows her sister loves and cares for her niece, "but one thing that's always bothered me is that she speaks to my daughter like an adult."
The OP continued: "Doesn't baby talk with her at all. I brought it up with her this weekend that it bothers me, but she brushed me off saying she's treating her like a person. She speaks to her cats in a baby voice all the time, and when I mentioned this she told me her cats are never learning how to speak so it doesn't matter for them. I feel like she's dismissing my feelings as a mother and prioritizes her cats over her niece."
The Redditor said that her sister thinks she's "being crazy," and said that if she feels "that strongly about it to find a different babysitter." The OP's husband thinks his wife should have just dropped the whole thing, and now they don't have an emergency person to babysit.
Statista reports the average annual expenses for babysitting and childcare per consumer unit in the country amounted to $105.82 in 2020. That number decreased from 2019 when the average amount was $123.61.
There were over 3,000 comments on the post, with many believing the OP is the a**hole in the situation. One comment, which clocked over 38,000 upvotes on its own, said, "YTA [you're the a**hole], speaking like an adult is not bad for a child, and she's doing you a favor."
Another user brought up the word entitlement, siding against the OP, saying the sister isn't obligated to babysit for her. They also agree with the sister saying, "if you're not happy, go find someone else to babysit for you. Be grateful. It's literally no big deal for her to not use baby talk, and it's kinda controlling of you to insist upon it. I mean even if it were a big deal, how many times do you even have to use a backup backup babysitter?"
Others came to the defense of the sister in the situation. "Three years old is definitely old enough to not be speaking in made-up baby talk," a user said. "Your child is starting to learn words and listening to your sister speaking with, you know, real words will help develop language skills."
Yet another votes YTA, adding that the OP's sister "has a much better grip on fostering proper communication in children than you do. If this is the hill you plan to die on...all I can say is that I hope you enjoy forking out big bucks for speech therapy to prepare for kindergarten."
Another comment with over 11,000 upvotes pointed out the "child's speech will develop faster if she is spoken to like a whole person. Baby talk should be very limited with developing brains. They learn language from the adults and older kids in their lives."
One person told the OP to "stop trying to control the way people talk," adding that if the sister doesn't want to baby talk the child, she shouldn't use it.
"Is this a real complaint?" someone asked. "Like, for real real because my initial thought is 'someone is fishing for attention with this post.' Of course YTA." The OP replied saying, "I just feel like [she's] expressing that she cares more for her pets and treats them more like children rather than my daughter the actual child."
A Redditor offered up some advice to the poster. "YTA. She's doing you a solid," they said. "Be thankful someone wants to help with your kid."
One person thinks the OP should apologize. "You're being ridiculous," someone wrote. "Apologize to your sister and lighten up. D**n. YTA."
Newsweek reached out to u/throwawaybabysister for comment.
