I swear it's been ever since caveman days, that even before we teach them useful words like "Fork" and "Eat" and "Fire," we teach kids to say "Moo" and "Meow" and "Bark". Technically, those aren't even words. Most kids I know grow up hardly ever even seeing cows, and I can't see the benefit of having them memorize the sound that cows make, or what benefit it would be for them to know it.

 

I suppose if there were wild cows back in caveman days that would eat you if you came near them, it would almost be required that kids would need to know what sound they made so that they could keep away from them, even though I'm almost positive that there was no such thing as wild man-eating prehistoric cows. I'm not clear as to what cows were supposed to be doing back in the caveman days, but I'm pretty sure they weren't attacking cavemen and eating them. If they were though, it would explain why we teach kids to say "moo" because then it would be a matter of survival.

 

Ironically, the kids who do grow up on farms, seeing cows all the time, probably need very little prompting to figure out and then communicate to you what sounds they hear them making, even though I don't know how that would benefit them.

 

I wonder if Hindu children learn to say moo when they're little, or if that's considered sacrilege in their religion?

 

I think that most parents are just proud of anything their children do, and teaching them animal sounds is the easiest thing to teach them because, after all, even baby animals can learn them. And yet we don't heap praise on baby cows for saying "Moo".

 

Another cruel irony.