Forget the sleepless nights and dodgy nappies, if you’re a parent then you’ve experienced one of the best moments in life: hearing your child’s first word.
A survey of more then 2,000 adults found the special moment your little one first gurgles something that resembles language beats getting married (which came in second) and actually having a baby (which took third place).
The research, by Campaign for Better Hearing, found falling in love for the first time, getting your first pay packet and hearing your baby’s first cry also feature in the top 20 best moments of your life.
So what are the magical words that make parents so warm and fuzzy inside? We asked mums and dads, scoured the internet, and trawled Mumsnet to find out. Got any to add and share? Let us know on Facebook.
“We count ‘wack wack’ as in ‘quack quack’ as my daughter’s first words at 14 months. Her first sentence, which my friends love to tell me was so middle class, was ‘houmous on top’, as she’d spilt some on her top!”
“After mama/dada, it was ‘cow’ at about nine to 10 months. She used to say it in this incredibly deep voice which sounded hilarious.”
“My son was one-year-old and his first word was ‘yummy’. It was his only word for a while.”
“My daughter spoke her first word at 10 months and it was triangle.”
“At eight months, the first word my daughter said was ‘cat’.”
“Do animal noises count as words in the early days? If so, my son consistently says ‘roar’ for a dinosaur.”
“My daughter’s first word, at 11 months was ‘bottom’. Clear as a day. Didn’t stop shrieking about it for eight weeks.”
“Star - well, ’tar, while pointing at a star. Followed about ten minutes later by ’tair, while pointing up the stairs. I think he was about nine months.”
“Mine’s was Abu Dhabi. Then ‘love’. Odd I know.”
“My daughter’s first word was ‘shoes’! I was so proud!”
