Saturday, October 27, 2007

Why Babies Love Our Stuff

I was in the bath the other night - yes I have to take a bath at 11 pm in order to get any peace and quiet. Anyway, it is a good time to get some reading done. I had the October issue of Parenting which came in September! Good thing I didn't need any of the costume ideas!

Well, on page 156 they have an article called Why Babies Love Your Stuff. I always knew that babies seemed to really love things like remotes, car keys, and phones. I never knew why. I just figured they were forbidden, therefore sought after.

I remember when Sean was a baby - he wanted nothing to do with baby toys and rattles. He wanted the matchbox cars and action figures that Brian was playing with. He also wanted keys and magazines and cell phones. It seems there is more to this than curiosity.

Babies naturally mimic and imitate other people. You can teach a few month old baby to stick his tongue out at you. If you do it often enough, every time they see you, they wall do it in anticipation of you doing it. Brian, Sean and Justin all did this. Then they learn to babble and clap and wave bye-bye all through copying others.

Marisa Maeyama from Parenting says that babies want our stuff because they see us with it and think that it is what they should do. She says , "These are the things he sees you playing with every day. If the most important people in his life are constantly using an object, it must be fun."

I have three kids and this idea has never crossed my mind. I never thought that they wanted an object to copy another person using it. I knew they copied other things - I just wasn't connecting it to my cell phone. I find this very interesting and just wanted to pass it on.

No comments: