The other day my daughter melted into tears on the métro. The incident prompted me to ask the advice of a friend, mother of four and “second mom” to many more. I described to her similar situations at home where my daughter would not react to me asking her “What’s wrong? Why are you crying?” and cry even louder when I tried to touch/comfort her. Daddy, however (when present), managed to not only “get through” to her but also to obtain a reply – mostly something extremely trivial.
This prompted my friend to suggest a language problem as the source, namely the lack of words in Mommy’s (minority) language to express her woes.

I was surprised at first since my daughter usually has no trouble expressing herself in German, and when she lacks a word she replaces it with a French one, as shows the last example in this recent post. But then I remembered the trouble I have when I’m very tired and get a technical translation on my desk. So maybe she is really lost for words in the right language and gets frustrated?

This morning I took her to the day-care before school. There she said “Ich will was trinken” (I want something to drink). I told her I didn’t have anything with me and she’d have to ask the day-care people. She asked “Mama, was sag ich?” (Mommy, what do I say?) I suggested “J’ai soif” (I’m thirsty) and she ran off to ask.
Seems this morning she “lost” her other language for a change. 😉