Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Questions Answered 4: Who's a good boy?
Dave ponders, “Why do some people baby-talk to their pets?”
My Answer: I often wonder the same thing. Some people are much worse than others. “Who’s a good boy? Ohhh that’s you! You’re such a good boy yes you are!” ...all spoken with lips pursed together like you’re about to kiss the animal. It’s quite bizarre. But if you think about it, not really. Many families consider their pets as one of the kids. Since animals can’t talk or otherwise verbalize what they’re thinking (I can’t decide if it would be a good thing if they could) we liken them to babies.
There are lots of similarities between pets and babies. They’re both cute, make inarticulate noises that you can only guess at their meaning, and require us to provide food and attention to them. Some dogs even have diapers, but that’s going a little far. Treating cats and dogs like babies includes the gushing baby-talk. Now the real question is, why do some people feel the need to baby-talk to babies?