Midnight Pub

Infantilization

~theoddballphilosopher

The more I think about the terminology, the more disgusted I feel by it's influence on today's society.

By treating it's population like children, it creates a ripple effect on the minds of people who lack autonomy and critical thinking.

As one who's endured this treatment, it makes me sick when I think of how much of my own potential was suppressed by those that deemed me incapable of achieving great things.

How can one be expected to grow if we treat them forever like children?

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~softwarepagan wrote (thread):

It's like society has no concept of anything between "Victorian child labor" and "uwu little baby til 25 uwu." People are increasingly treated as if they have no autonomy whatsoever and they eat that shit up in order to just mindlessly consume media and do little else with their time.

~inquiry wrote (thread):

I had no idea it was so big a topic (per a visit to the Wikipedia infantilization entry).

Reminds me of an argument I had with my mom many moons ago. I was expressing how I felt it important to not do "baby talk" with my first born "because it was fake", and I felt it important for him to experience who/how I actually was. So, in other words, I didn't do the "Oooh, little ie, you're such a cute little boy... oh yes you are! Oh yes you are!", blah, blah. I've no idea how I became motivated along those lines. But, anyway, she picked him up and started doing such, and he responded with the biggest smile.. and my dad looked at me and said something something like, "So much for your dumb-assed theories, ... ...."

And, well... okay... she seemed to be right in a way. And yet I still consider that kind of interaction with infants/kids to be a sort of "talking down", and it annoys me. But, as my dad not-at-all subtly hint, what do I know?

I'm not saying that kind of talk to infants/kids necessarily constitutes infantilization, but the first couple paragraphs into that Wikipedia entry brought this story to mind, so....