My son Eli loves to talk. I mean, he’s a true jabberjaw. Talk, talk, talk from morning til night. He even talks in his sleep sometimes.
Because of all the chatter, it’s hard to always listen carefully to what he says. I mean, sometimes you just have to tune out some of it for sanity. I know that makes me the most horrible mom of the year. But if you’ve never mothered a highly talkative child, don’t be hatin’ on me, ok? You don’t know what it’s like.
So this morning, I’m working on my column and he’s sitting behind me at the table, eating his cereal and talking. I’m throwing out a lot of “Oh yeahs” and “mmm-hmms” and “that’s cools”. I know it had something to do with frogs, because he asked how big a frog’s stomach was, and how many flies did I think they ate in a day. But yeah, for the most part, I have to admit: I wasn’t really listening.
Then he asked when he’d see his friend, “A” again. I told him we’re supposed to see him next Tuesday, if it doesn’t snow.
He replied, “Oh man! If it snows, and if I’m busy seeing “A”, then I can’t get that frog on Tuesday.”
Poor kid. His distracted mama probably “mmm-hmm’d” at the wrong time and now he thinks we’re getting a pet frog.
Lesson learned. Even when one’s child is a chatterbox, it pays to listen!
I, too, am the mother of a very talkative child … but I will take your lesson to heart and be aware of what I’m “mmm-hmmm”ing in response to!
Too funny my friend! I know exactly what you mean. I have one of those chatterboxes :o)