by Sherry
As of late, my daughter has taken to saying, "Huh?" at everything we say to her, unless, of course, she chooses not to answer at all. She even follows up with that one-word-I'm-not-really-listening-to-you line to things she does hear and before we can repeat ourselves completely, she answers the original call. The lack of a respectable answer or reply to our spoken words has left me feeling a bit miffed, but I'm not sure how to rectify it.
Please tell me that it's only a preteen phase and that there is still hope!
Wow, I was actually trying to read something else and wound up on this from January!! Well, nothing happens by accident so I will comment on this.
My niece Marissa who is almost 12 always says "dunno" and "no clue". Of course my 6 yr old Lillianna who admires her cousin has picked this up. The first time I heard it I addressed this problem and said "I don't know" will be used instead of "dunno" and "no clue" since they mean the same thing. Although "no clue" is trendy it makes them sound like empty headed morons which they are definitely NOT. Lillianna has stopped this slang because anytime she slips I am there with my gentle reminder. If I didn't stop it now then she will just get worse as she gets older.
As for "like", Lillianna and I both remind eachother when we hear the other say it. I learned to omit it completely when I lived in Israel for 2 yrs. No one understood me with all those "likes"!! It just meant speaking slower and really thinking about what I was going to say. Of course now and then I slip and throw a like in but it's much less than it used to be!
Good luck!
Posted by: Robin | April 01, 2004 at 10:42 AM
My daughter (10) is going through the "like" phase. "At school today there were these, like, boys and they were, like, playing this, like, game and then we were like, c'mon and let us play!"
I don't like it.
Posted by: Amy | February 03, 2004 at 11:55 AM
It will all pass! They grow up so fast.:-)
Posted by: shelly | January 31, 2004 at 07:27 PM
My son has started doing this and he's only 2 :o( I'm trying to ignore him unless he says "pardon" instead in a vague attempt to make it slightly less irritating, but I'm not really winning.
Posted by: Pewari | January 31, 2004 at 05:06 AM
Mine do this when I am saying something they do not want to hear.
Posted by: Emily | January 30, 2004 at 10:17 PM
Taste of her own medicine?
Posted by: Michelle | January 30, 2004 at 05:04 PM