Alphabet Advice Needed

I don't want to give too much away because this project could turn commercial but basically I was wondering the following:

If you saw a book or a poster (for example) with an illustrated alphabet for children how would you feel about seeing M is for Mummy and D is for Daddy if they didn't represent your own situation. For example... if the Daddy was wearing a suit and your child's daddy was a farmer? Or if you are Asian and the Mummy was Anglo/Caucasian? Do you think it would be better to avoid the Mummy and Daddy words and maybe substitute them for something else? And if so what? D is for Dummy? (would some people not approve of this) M is for Milk?

What do people think? Keep Daddy and Mummy (and not worry about the type of parent I illustrate) or change these to something else? These are the only letters I'm having doubts about. All the other letters have things that mostly are particular to childhood.

Thankyou so much for any suggestions :)

How about having Mummy and Daddy being parents not workers- reading a book with a a baby or changing a nappy or kissing goodnight or snuggling on the sofa or at the park.

or
D is for daiper, dog, doll,
M is for milk, mouse, maze,

if you're going to do mummy and daddy, i'd avoid stereotyping the clothes they're wearing - maybe put them in casual clothes and have the illustrations with them interacting with their kids rather than work related.

milk - i guess you could do a milk bottle (as in from the shop) or a glass of milk, but avoid the baby bottle stereotype
dummy - nah, not a fan - lots of people don't use them... depending on what other types of things you're using, could you use animals (dog etc, maybe a toy monkey for m...)

If you drew a mother breastfeeding with her face looking down at the baby you could do it in such a way that her race would be very hard to distinguish ;)
You could do a dad from the back too maybe or looking down at a book...

Yep, I'd have mummy/daddy doing mummy /daddy stuff....

You could make one light skinned, one dark?? With corresponding light skinned/dark skinned child??

Not a fan of dummy either sorry!!:p

Ohhh, nice train of thought Brontide... they could be leaning down kissing tops of heads, yard work, housework, cooking, playing, pushing on swings... lots of things could "disguise" them!!! :p

Thanks for your quick replies girls :)

The illustrations (for each letter) have to be quite basic so I can't really have too much "interaction" but I agree with having the parents dressed in casual clothes. I guess I just don't want to alienate people with non-white skin. The illustrations have to be in colour.

Yep, I agree, ditch D is for Dummy. I've already got a few animals (O is for Owl) and because I want to use lots of things specific to childhood I was hoping to avoid another animal.

I thought of using D is for Doula.... ?

With M is for Milk... could I be brave enough to do a breast-feed? I don't want to alienate the older generation (for example) who might frown at this. But I really did want to promote BFing somehow.

I have S is for Sling.

See where I'm taking this?

ETA: sorry missed a few of the other replies since replying again...

ETA: I think I am leaning toward using M is for Milk... and doing an image of a mother BFing but not showing any booby IYKWIM.

coming from a single parent family and caring for children who have lost both parents in a tradgic accident i personally wouldnt have family members in it at all. there are lots of other options but have seen special events like mothers day, fathers day create bullying in the playground. Sad but true

Umm, Breastfeed for M for Milk might make FF mums a bit off, as formula is milk too... what about B for Breastfeed???

S for sling.. awesome!!

D for Doula might be a little obscure for some... M for Midwife maybe??

I didn't know what a Doula was till BB..... :redface::redface:

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D for Doula might be a little obscure for some... M for Midwife maybe??

I didn't know what a Doula was till BB..... :redface::redface:

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Ahhh yes but what a good format to educate! I'm not 100% convinced that Doula is the right word.... but it would be a good opportunity to spread the word. It's not like this commercial enterprise will be that big anyhow... more a small cottage alternative exercise IYKWIM.

Loula: yep... the more I think about it the more I agree that maybe I should omit family members altogether.

Regarding alienating artificial milk users by including a BFing illustration: I think on the whole formula users have enough public acceptance... it's easier for a mum to buy a can of formula in a supermarket than it is to pop out a boob in a supermarket. So, without wanting to offend, I think that balancing out the situation by choosing a BF for "M is for Milk" would be in the broader publics best interest. I have used artificial milk so i don't have anything against this important product. Don't want this thread to turn into a debate though. Ok... maybe I could pop a bottle next to the BFing mum... *mulling* so it covers both bases?

I'd keep it simple and do D for dog and M for monkey.

I'd steer away from anything too complicated like midwife and doula - they're very adult-oriented. Would be like saying A is for architect.

being politically correct for EVERYTHING is hard! follow your hear with how You want it to be as this is going to be your baby!

I have to agree that Doula is probaly not the best thing to use!

What about D is for Drink?

and M is for....thinking...thinking.... Mobile phone??!! LOL

If its a little educational, then Doula would be perfect!!
My 2.5 yr old at the time knew what a midwife was because I told him she helps mummy when the baby wants to come!!;)

Ok... this project is not (well, highly unlikely) going to be picked up and used by a big multinational organisation... at the very most it will be sold amongst friends... this is not for Fisher Price! LOL it's just going to be a small cottage industry thing... ;) So yeah... I want it to a little educational.... and different from what's available in the mainstream.

Sounds awesome Bath!! :dance::clap::clap:

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Sounds awesome Bath!! :dance::clap::clap:

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Ta :) Sorry if I got a bit sensitive about the BFing thing.... I guess it seems to me that bottles are over-represented in the world of childhood illustrations and toys. I only want to kinda even up the balance.

What I am hoping to do is create something different to what's already out there. There are a million "A is for Apple" representations out there... I reckon a product that uses an alphabet more in tune with the kind of things we talk about in BB (ie gentle parenting) would be great to try.

I agree, and a tops idea!! I would love wall hanging that was closer to my "hippy" beliefs for Harmony, and the boys, breastfeeding, slings, pregnant belly etc...

I am all for a breastfeeding picture, there should be one... I just thought under B for Breastfeeding might be a little better than M for Milk.... :redface: sorry.
I think there is a lot of "MILK' types, but only one breastfeeding!!! ;)

I think that B for breastfeeding is better than M for milk with a breastfeeding picture. B for breastfeeding is a direct link between the picture, the sound and the letter whereas M for Milk has the direct link between sound and letter but the link to the picture is very abstract. When things are too abstract they can be a bit harder to grasp for littlies.
For M for mik I would just have a glass of milk.

ETA - D is also for daughter, day, dinner, danger, dirt, dish, Dr and dance

M is also for - man, meal, me, middle, morning, music and museum.

I like M is for Milk, and include breastfeeding, or you could even use B, and then use M for midwife.

LOVE the idea by the way, sounds like a fantastic natural/gentle parenting toy (toy? probably not the right word).

A couple of suggestions

M for Midwife or Man (so you can remove the Daddy bit)
B for Breasfeeding or bed/bedtime
D for Dinner or Doula or Dance

I think this is a fantastic idea :)

Sounds interesting Bath!

I like the idea of using M is for man, because then if it is for a child- they can talk about the 'man' as any man that might be in their life, dad, uncle, friend, postman, grandfather etc.

Thanks for all your suggestions girls :D Highly valued!

The thing with "B is for..." is that I am really keen on keeping B for Birthday. I don't want to change that... which limits which letter I can use for BFing I guess... tricky.

L is for lactation?

could have F is for Feeding...with a picture of breastfeeding.

Unless you are having F for Fluffy Mail of course!

LOL at Fluffy mail! :D ahhhh you girls are going to get me to type out my whole alphabet! Which I kinda don't reeeeally want to do... who knows i might want to join BB's Market Place and start floggin it to you all LOL and I want a few surprises! ;)

B for boobie :ROFL:

On a serious note I think what you are doing is a great idea and I hope that it is a success.

Some suggestions:
b- bath
d- doctors (most kids/babies/toddlers have been to the doctors)
m- 'me' (maybe the parents could insert a photo of their child on this square) - make it more personalised to the child

Hope that helps :)

B is for Birthday ;) Not going to change that one...

M and D are the ones up for question. I'm still keen on "Milk"... and while I like "Doula" I am flexible.

The words have to be pretty basic.

Once again thanks everyone for your brain storming :thumbsup:

Okay my suggestions - make sure whatever you will use for each letter will make sense to the child - for example I've seen posters with p for parrot - most young children will say bird, use generic things if you know what I mean. I personally wouldn't use dummy because not all people use dummies and many children may not identify with them. Remember the poster is for a child, not for the adult.


Sorry - did I misunderstand - is the project aimed at children or adults? I think you really need to ditch lactation, doula and any big words for a little kids poster, it will just confuse them and no educational people would buy something like that imho.

Interesting idea. Whilst I am all for a poster that has something other than the usual A is apple, I do sometimes get frustrated with things that are too politically correct. Whilst I don't expect something to 100% represent my beliefs, family etc, I would have no interest in something that was completely opposite iykwim.

I do like milk for M. Will have to think about D.

Would be so nice to see one that is Australian (not using terms like jelly for jam or cap for hat), but is not completely over the top with Australianisms.

I haven't read through all the responses so I apologise if this is a double up but what about M is for Mummy and had a "photo place" so you can personalise it with your own picture? Dad could be the same.

Nae x

Ok... I don't mean to keep you guessing but the product is only "like" a poster/book ;) It is not actually a poster... and it definitely won't be possible to add photos.

I am hoping that only some words might be unusual for a child (otherwise it wouldn't really be very educational ). I think it would be ok if less than 5 words were maybe not a part of the child's everyday vocabulary. For example... most littlies (under 4s) would have never seen an owl or perhaps even used the word (like the example of the parrot)... but because the owl will look quite distinctive I think it will be ok. I aim to make the product quite aesthetically appealing... and there is an element to it (which i can't disclose) that will appeal to adults... so if I am in doubt about a choice between two words I will opt for the one that i can make more aesthetically attractive IYKWIM. I hope that this will become a treasured product... not just another alphabet product.

anyhow... no photos :) But thankyou for your continued suggestions. I'll post when my alphabet is finalised.

Love M is for milk. I agree that BF is not portrayed as the norm and could do with a bit of promoting. ;) A bottle next the lady would be fine too. I am amazed at the amount of children that don't know milk comes from breasts.

As for D...... what about Doll, Door, Drum, Dragon?! love a little fantasy. :)

If you wanted to use mum and dad, i don't think the color of the skin matters. You could do two different ethnicites. Kids will know that it is the mother of that child. No matter what your background is you still have a mum!

Owl is a great word. My 20 month old can distinguish an owl from a generic bird. Like you say they are distinctive. She says "whooo hoooo" when she sees a picture of an owl, and says bird when she sees a bird. If there was a P for parrot and she said bird, i'd just say "Yes that's right, it's a bird. It's a parrot" I don't think they have to be really obvious, that's how kids learn. Not that you asked about that, just rambling!!! :p

Ta Falguni :) I really like Dragon! :clap: Maybe even Dragon Mummy! (just joking... that's just what I call myself when I get grumpy... it a bit of a family joke) ;) I could really imagine a very artistic looking dragon.... or even doll :think: thanks for those. I'll mull over the list now and let you all know.

:rofl: i can be a bit of a dragon mummy sometimes too!