this post was submitted on 01 Jul 2026
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Showerthoughts

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A "Showerthought" is a simple term used to describe the thoughts that pop into your head while you're doing everyday things like taking a shower, driving, or just daydreaming. The most popular seem to be lighthearted clever little truths, hidden in daily life.

Here are some examples to inspire your own showerthoughts:

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Is this just something we decided would symbolise baby speech or are children that grow up around English more likely to say this?

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[–] crazycraw@crazypeople.online 19 points 5 days ago (1 children)

when I was a kid I had a baby cousin who crawled up to me, looked me dead in the eye and said GOO.

I was unsure of what to do, just sorta instinctively said goo back.

he continued holding eye contact but cracked a smile.

he started crawling away when I heard GAA.

i said it back to him when he was a good distance. He liked me.

anyway, whereever you are in Santa fe, good job getting your doctorate, Erin.

[–] Gorgritch_umie_killa@aussie.zone 3 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

On no, don't say you US people use Erin as a guys name as well! Dammit! I can barely understand the difference between how you say Aaron and Erin, and now I can't even consider whether you lot are refering to a guy or gal to understand which name you mean! Ugh!! I just can't with you lot! This is worse than losing to you in the soccer! /j

[–] crazycraw@crazypeople.online 4 points 5 days ago

it's ok; Erin is pronounced exactly like Aaron. "Air'in"

[–] Whats_your_reasoning@lemmy.world 3 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Wait until you hear about Dawn and Don.

I grew up in a part of the country that pronounces them differently. Moving out of that zone, I finally understood why a teacher I had (with the first name "Dawn") hated her name.

😂 yeah, i hadn't clocked that one yet. I'll look out for it.

[–] bstix@feddit.dk 15 points 5 days ago (2 children)

Babies will mimick whatever sounds you say.

Modern parenting practice is not to teach them gibberish first, when you might as well speak normally to them. They're small humans and should be treated as humans. Would you say goo goo ga ga to your friends or co-workers?

Grown ups who speak baby language to children are frowned upon. Why are they doing that boomer shit? They look like idiots and it isn't helping anyone.

If you want to change your communication to facilitate a faster learning curve for a child to learn spoken language, you're better off combining regular speech with sign language. They pick that up faster.

[–] Krauerking@lemy.lol 2 points 4 days ago

Why are they doing that boomer shit?

Its not boomer shit. Its so much older than boomer, I speak in the Goo's and Gaa's to keep my ancestors alive.

Goo, ha goo ga ga, 3 ga googa
(May our hunt only kill about 3 of us)

[–] deegeese@sopuli.xyz 14 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Every baby says goo or gaa at some point.

Those are just representative sounds. Like ‘bang’ and ‘pow’ in comic books.

[–] NOT_RICK@lemmy.world 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Onomatopoeia is always just a rough approximation

[–] hakase@lemmy.zip 7 points 5 days ago

Unless you're a lyrebird!

[–] orenj@leminal.space 12 points 5 days ago (1 children)

And ive never heard a barbarian say 'bar bar bar', either! Its a conspiracy I tell you!

[–] Malyca@lemmy.zip 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Toddlers can speak usually, you're thinking of babies

[–] Drekaridill@lemmy.wtf 15 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Whatever the larval stage of human is called

[–] WindyRebel@lemmy.world 4 points 5 days ago

A fetus. They are usually still forming vocal cords.

[–] schwim@piefed.zip 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Since it's unlikely that the babies have combined forces with supernatural powers to share knowledge upon entrance into the world, I think it's safe to assume that it's intended to be a representation of the nonsense gibberish they utter while learning how their mouth and vocal cords work.

[–] Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe 2 points 5 days ago (1 children)

That's what the Baby Cabal wants you to think...

[–] 9point6@lemmy.world 2 points 5 days ago

It's always Big Baby

[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 8 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Drekaridill@lemmy.wtf 7 points 5 days ago (1 children)
[–] Flax_vert@feddit.uk 3 points 5 days ago

Saw this post after seeing that comic lol

[–] MrShankles@reddthat.com 3 points 4 days ago

Well you haven't lived!

[–] aeronmelon@lemmy.world 6 points 5 days ago (1 children)

My son liked saying Ba. He called me Baba before saying papa or daddy.

[–] teft@piefed.social 10 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago) (2 children)

Baba is the word for father in a bunch of languages.

As one of the first utterances many babies are able to say, baba (like mama, papa, and dada) has come to be used in many languages as a term for various family members:

father: Albanian, Arabic, Western Armenian, Chinese, Hindi, Urdu, Punjabi, Bengali, Greek, Marathi, Marshallese, Mingrelian, Nepali, Persian, Swahili, Turkish, Yoruba, Shona, Zulu  
grandmother: many Slavic languages (such as Bulgarian, Czech, Russian, Serbo-Croatian and Polish; a doublet of bubbe), Romanian, Yiddish, Japanese  
grandfather: Azerbaijani, Zulu (father, grandfather)  
baby: Afrikaans, Sinhala, Hungarian  

You can hear the zulu one in the opening lines of The Lion King song Circle of Life. 

"Nants ingonyama bagithi baba." literally means "hear comes the lion, father"  

[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 7 points 5 days ago

“ba” and “ma” are probably the easiest syllables to utter when your brain is still figuring out your mouth and vocal chords, which is probably why they tend to be words for the parents.

You can hear the zulu one in the opening lines of The Lion King song Circle of Life.

"Nants ingonyama bagithi baba." literally means "hear comes the lion, father"

Okay, this part blew my mind. I knew such terms were used around the world for parents, but that connection to The Lion King is still really cool to learn.

[–] teft@piefed.social 6 points 5 days ago

Babies first sounds are usually a consonant followed by a vowel. So ma, pa, ga, gu, ba. A few months later they start duplicating the sounds while testing out their speaking abilities so you get mama, papa, gaga, googoo, baba. Which are common first words for lots of baby things. Like baba for my sister was her bottle. Every baby might not say every variation while they're learning and they will obviously have favorite words but generally that's why we consider baby speech like that. Maybe english just happens to choose the "g" for the leading consonant because we have a lot of hard g words in english and that's what babies pick up on first.

Toddlers whose families use Google Home: