For Better or For Worse by Lynn Johnston for March 28, 2021

when do kids commence talking? my older brother’s older son is two years, but hasn’t said much (the younger son is going on one)

Elizabeth is a very observant girl, in spite of her inexperience with babies. Her over-the-shoulder eyeroll at Elly in the final panel practically says it all. Yes, Elizabeth, even experienced mothers can be ignorant about their baby’s development until it strokes their ego.

Yeeeeeaaahh…… riiiiiiggghhhttt…

The problem as I see it is once they start talking they will never, never Stop talking.

Don’t worry Liz I rolled my eyes too

We wondered when our son would ever start talking. Then we wondered if he would ever shut up!

Here’s more proof that babies say Da da before Ma ma. A child expert on a documentary show said that because of linguistics and the vocal chords that the ehm sound is harder to form than the duh sound, so that’s why a baby’s first word would more likely be daddy.

When I was a baby, my grandfather – my mothe’s father – was living with us. (My grandparents were divorced, & he had cancer.) One day, my mother took the older kids to Memere’s to go swimming, and Pepere babysat me. Pepere called over there, telling my Mom to come home, quick! Since I was not a very healthy baby (I actually suffered from seizures), Mom bundled up the kids & rushed home. When she got there, Pepere opened the door with a big smile on his face. “She said ’Mama!” You see, he knew he was dying, and he wanted to hear me say “Mama” before he died. Anyway, there I was, sitting on the floor, saying, “Mama! Mama!” …and pointing at HIM! (For the record, he died one week before my first birthday.)

I like Albert Einsteins (probably fictitional) first words.

In frame 2 she is trying to say “Google”

We usually ignore random until it becomes personal. Sort of like lightening.

Oh yeah, still feeling the disconnect. Parenting is not for the fainthearted. And each time I see an installment of this strip that focuses on this aspect of it, I am once again reminded that such responsibilities were thankfully bestowed upon those who are more adept to deal with it.

depends on how much time the little one gets to actually say what is on his mind. I have a granddaughter that didn’t talk until she was 3 because the other kids her mom was babysitting used sign language and her siblings did all the talking for her. When I took her to her first dance class all the little girls used words, so she learned the words then and has yet to stop talking. that was 10 years ago.

My grandson was two in February and he is doing one word identification of colors, etc. His parents work with him constantly. His favorite words are Big and Up and the colors. Oh, and Papa and Nana.

They’re (ma-ma) just noise to her…

So sweet ♡.

Neither of my kids said Mama or Dada as their first word. My son’s first word was kittycat, and my daughter’s was brother.

You hear what you want to hear and see what you want to see

More proof that there’s not enough room in the house for anything but Helly’s EGO!

As much as I defend Elly, sometimes she does act clueless.

A wink is as good as a nod to a blind man….or woman

I’ve heard that “mama” or some variant of it enters the vocabulary a fair while before they can make sense of other words because “ma” is the only sound they can make clearly with a nipple in their mouth. That’s also why something that sounds like “mama” comes up in so many otherwise very different languages.

Now makes a difference.

No2son’s first words, standing next to carboy full of about-to-be-bottled beer, were, “DaBeer”

This family had a boy who was 5 years old and never spoke. One morning at breakfast he said this oatmeal is lumpy and the parents said why have you never spoke until now? and he said until now everything was OK.

The first words generally learnt by babies are mommy, no doubt.

Wow, the facts are only true when they benefit YOU, ain’t they Helly?