Cover Photo: An image of a woman with a baby
Stamp by Eliza Harris, Photograph by Austin Wade/Unsplash

Becoming Fluent in Baby Talk

Parenting didn’t just change the way I talked and behaved, it changed the way I saw the world.

Is he teething? When are you going back to work?

Game of Thrones

across all different culturesOne studysuggests

Sex and the CityWhat an assholePeople with kids really expect everyone to cater to them, don’t they?

that’s not very niiiice

than it does in a language like Cantoneselinguist Tim Lomas puts it


Oh, I’m so sorry I tapped your bucket-on-wheels. Wouldn’t want to add a 17th dent to that stapled-on door. There’s actual duct tape on your rearview mirror, sir.

It’s fine.

an emotional attachment to babiesalso experience changes to the brain

then

see everyone’s inner baby

Kristin Wong is a freelance writer and journalist whose work has appeared in the New York Times, ELLE, Travel + Leisure, and The Cut among other publications. She frequently writes about behavior and identity and is also a staff writer and researcher at Hidden Brain Media, where she contributes to the Hidden Brain podcast and radio show.