Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Chatty Patty...er, Pat

I love to talk with all of my children. I love to hear stories of what they did during the day...what they are interested in... what they are passionate about. I am amazed by the precious, insightful, and often humorous things they say. I truly love their stories. But.....

Does it make me a bad mother that I often cringe when Nicholas starts to tell me a story? Once the child gets started, he never stops. Seriously...he has the lung capacity of a dolphin...or a sea turtle...or whichever sea creature can hold its breath the longest. He can go and go and go without even stopping to take a breath. Ten minutes into his story about absolutely nothing, my eyes begin to glaze over...I am making a mental checklist in my head about what I could be getting accomplished if I wasn't diligently listening to Nicholas' story. But he doesn't care if I am unfocused and only feigning interest. He is perfectly content to talk all day. I just have to throw in an occasion "yes" or "really?" He follows me from room to room telling his stories. And to make matters worse, he has a bit of a stammer. So he tends to repeat at least the first few words of every sentence, which manages to make his stories THAT much longer.

He does the same thing when he is talking to his sister. He will go on and on and on. However, Sophie (being the diva she is who cannot be bothered with silly boy stories) will eventually, without saying a single word, just turn and walk away from him. Ahh...to be a sibling who can ignore him. As his mother, I feel that I can't really turn and walk away....and that's not really effective anyway since he will just follow me, without ever missing a beat. So...I must endure his stories. I must fake interest. I must even...gulp...encourage him to tell me more. As parents, we're supposed to encourage, not discourage, language skills...............right?

1 comments:

Jen said...

I feel exactly the same way sometimes, lol. Parenthood...

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