A friend and I were texting about how we were avoiding our children at bedtime when I discovered a certain family vernacular:
Then another friend shared her own spin on the name for her kids’ noise:
This was like learning how people in different parts of the world use their own phrases to describe soda, or athletic shoes, or water fountains.
In the name of linguistics, if your children, at whatever age, occasionally express themselves in a way that one ordinary word doesn’t quite cover, what do you call it in your household?
Due to her deep and abiding affection for Dinosaur Train from 2 to 6 years old, we usually call it “Raaawk”ing because the parent Pteranadons tell their kids to stay in “raawking distance” and to “raawk” If they need them. (And yes I called them parent pteranodons instead of dinosaurs because pterasaurs are not dinosaurs as I have been told half a million times, especially the two years she was dressed as one at Halloween at age 3 and 4 and said “No” very crossly every time someone asked her if she was a dinosaur.)
When the toddler wakes up, cries for a brief moment and falls back asleep, she’s squawking or having a little squawk. Just a squawk is good because it means no intervention is necessary.
When we get the litany of complaints for any situation, we call it the "airing of grievances"—obvs my kid learned from the best, his kvetching mom, descended from a long line of them.
Weird bonus of my particular kid’s neurodiversity=very limited screeching or screaming. We do however get singing. All. Day. Long. Can’t sleep? He sings. Car ride? He sings. Mama won’t turn on tv? Sings. He has been starting to inch into more typical crying which is probably a good thing developmentally but I’ll miss the singing.
We call this "Problems!" and then my husband plays this youtube video of a Nascar announcer saying "problems!" in seven hundred different ways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKzAbV9rAgA
My kids are past the screamies (love it) but they do the “doom spiral” or “spiraling” when they are stressed about something and just start going down, down, down to a place of no return….
i am trying my current strategy of “do not engage! i repeat do not engage!”. i just try to “hmmm, uh huh” which is super difficult for me bc i am not a spiraler (new word) or a dweller…i am a fixer…and they are not wanting to fix, they want to wallow…
i will say that the do not engage works for the first 30 min and then i lose my shit….😂😂
seriously, why is it always at night when i am so desperate for two minutes to myself. i’m all like, close your eyes, take deep breaths….while i back out of the room and hope you fall asleep
We say nuclear. As in, she’s gone nuclear. I’m not sure it’s cute but it helps me categorize yelling/ screaming/ fighting/ melting down as “science” which makes the most sense to my logical brain.
In the space between my oldest learning to talk and only being able to coo or cry, they would babble-yell when upset. My husband dubbed it baby profanity. “Get me out of this wet onesie, em-effers! Give me that thing I’m reaching for, dumb sh+ts!” Very confident yelling while making no actual discernible English words = baby profanity.
I call it "sound terrorism."
Due to her deep and abiding affection for Dinosaur Train from 2 to 6 years old, we usually call it “Raaawk”ing because the parent Pteranadons tell their kids to stay in “raawking distance” and to “raawk” If they need them. (And yes I called them parent pteranodons instead of dinosaurs because pterasaurs are not dinosaurs as I have been told half a million times, especially the two years she was dressed as one at Halloween at age 3 and 4 and said “No” very crossly every time someone asked her if she was a dinosaur.)
When the toddler wakes up, cries for a brief moment and falls back asleep, she’s squawking or having a little squawk. Just a squawk is good because it means no intervention is necessary.
When we get the litany of complaints for any situation, we call it the "airing of grievances"—obvs my kid learned from the best, his kvetching mom, descended from a long line of them.
We call it "the screamies" ...in a vain hope a diminutive name will lessen its power to ruin lives
Weird bonus of my particular kid’s neurodiversity=very limited screeching or screaming. We do however get singing. All. Day. Long. Can’t sleep? He sings. Car ride? He sings. Mama won’t turn on tv? Sings. He has been starting to inch into more typical crying which is probably a good thing developmentally but I’ll miss the singing.
We call this "Problems!" and then my husband plays this youtube video of a Nascar announcer saying "problems!" in seven hundred different ways https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UKzAbV9rAgA
My kids are past the screamies (love it) but they do the “doom spiral” or “spiraling” when they are stressed about something and just start going down, down, down to a place of no return….
i am trying my current strategy of “do not engage! i repeat do not engage!”. i just try to “hmmm, uh huh” which is super difficult for me bc i am not a spiraler (new word) or a dweller…i am a fixer…and they are not wanting to fix, they want to wallow…
i will say that the do not engage works for the first 30 min and then i lose my shit….😂😂
seriously, why is it always at night when i am so desperate for two minutes to myself. i’m all like, close your eyes, take deep breaths….while i back out of the room and hope you fall asleep
We say nuclear. As in, she’s gone nuclear. I’m not sure it’s cute but it helps me categorize yelling/ screaming/ fighting/ melting down as “science” which makes the most sense to my logical brain.
We call it screeching! My 7 yo mostly says his brother’s name in a very exasperated tone but I like fatigue screaming as a description!
In the space between my oldest learning to talk and only being able to coo or cry, they would babble-yell when upset. My husband dubbed it baby profanity. “Get me out of this wet onesie, em-effers! Give me that thing I’m reaching for, dumb sh+ts!” Very confident yelling while making no actual discernible English words = baby profanity.
Fatigue Screaming is GENIUS.