Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Mommy can't get a word in edgewise

My son is a talker. By that, I mean he talks. A lot. A whole lot.

He talks to his family members; he talks to the cat; he talks to himself; he talks to his toys; he talks to strangers (actually, I'm proud of that last one). I've even heard him mumble a bit in his sleep. 

When I am tired of listening to him yammer on, I have to remind myself: This just means that our plan worked.

You see, my husband and I talked to him all the time when he was a baby. We'd explain things in grocery stores and on walks; we read books out loud to him; we carried on full conversations with him as though he could participate. He said his first word (Mama - because he knew the score) at six months. 

And I don't think he has stopped talking since.

Do I regret our plan of talking to him early and often so he could develop his language skills? No. (Well, OK, maybe after the 700th "Mommy?" of the day I do a bit). Most of us have seen the studies that show that children who are spoken to often at an early age have larger vocabularies by school age and able to process language better.

The larger vocabulary aspect is great - I love it when strangers hear my son talking about what an ichthyologist does or when he gives examples of onomatopoeia. The ability to process language better makes me believe that he completely understood me the first time I gave him directions to clean up his toys (but he's still not going to do it, because he is in the middle of a fantasy where his cars transform into planes and go on roller coasters, which is clearly much more important).

So now I have a question: How do I get him to stop talking? How do I get him to learn how to just enjoy silence? Because in this world of too much noise trying to get our attention, I want my son to be able to just sit and enjoy the quiet.

Any ideas or tips? Tell me in the comments (and no, the "Silent Game" that our parents played with us is not a good option.)

4 comments:

  1. I don't think they every stop. Talkers are talkers. I have one of each. The talker not only talks, but sings, hums, yells,whines, whistles, you name it, he makes the noise.
    Just buy a nice set of headphones for yourself.

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    1. Thanks for the advice...I complain, but I really do love all his words. I'm still happy about the fact that he still wants to share his world with me :)

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  2. All of mine have been good talkers, they could all say a few words by 10 months and hold a conversation by 12. My oldest is 20 and my youngest 3, we've 7 in total, so I'm used to having someone chatting away at me all of the time now, although we do have an 'I started talking first' policy to prevent it getting louder and louder.
    When he's 16 and you can't get any information out of him about anything, you'll remember this time very fondly....

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    1. How true that is! I definitely enjoy his crazy stories and the ideas that he shares with me. I couldn't imagine having seven all trying to get my attention, though! Wow!

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