Baby Talk

The straight couple next door have a just-turned two year old boy. He is your standard issue cute, curly-blond-headed, blue eyed, gush.

It has to be a tight squeeze for them all, as their place is the same size as ours, and lord-knows it's tight over here for us. The apartments where we live are kind of New York style, in that there is no private outdoor space, only a narrow walkway that runs along the front of the building.

The kid is your reasonably typical two year old; into everything he shouldn't be, obsessed with trucks, water and animals. He loves being outside, and on occasion throws a major hissy when dragged (literally) into the apartment.

He babbles non-sensically pretty much constantly. This is concern number one; surely at two he should be putting some recognizable words together, right? Nope, not a one have I heard that I recognize. It is pretty much "da da da da".

Listening to his parents tho, and the way they speak to him (and each other) maybe I shouldn't be surprised. He (the father) has some anger issues, and she is in a constant state of placation and appeasement, from what we hear.

He yells and screams at her from time to time, and at the kid too. The saddest thing is to hear her telling the kid not to do this-or-that because it'll "make Daddy mad", or that "daddy has told you not to do that", etc. Ugh. Poor little bugger.

It also amazes me hearing the general ways in which they talk to him. Instructions, statements, but no age-appropriate explanations. No "Don't drink that water, it's yucky" just "I've told you not to drink that". Lots of voiced concerns about getting wet and dirty, but nothing that could be called teaching.

She loves him for sure, that's obvious. It's just the lack of kid-based wisdom that astounds me. Proof that you can bring a child forth, but raising them is a whole other ball of string.

I wonder if he is hearing impaired, it might explain the lack of vocabulary? I also wonder if it is appropriate to say something to them, seeing I am in the kid business after all? But with his anger issues, I am a touch hesitant to try that, just yet.

We'll see...