Gwen has recently gotten into the habit of finishing her sentences with "Do you hear me, Mommy?" Every sentence. Every thought spoken aloud. Every single one of them. And if you do not respond that yes, you do hear her, the question will be repeated indefinitely. It is exhausting!!! I thought perhaps she wasn't feeling validated, so I would stop and look her in the eye so she knew she had my attention, yet the dreaded question still finished every sentence. I am not sure what to try next... Gwen talks A LOT. So much so that, at times, I have wondered when she finds the time to breathe. I feel myself slipping into a fog of fantasy of not being able to hear her... of being able to lazily listen to her thoughts on subjects ranging from the lovability of rotten eggs to how she figured out how to tease the dog in new and fantastic ways instead of facing a barage of demands to vocalize that I am, in fact, not deaf. It is really wearing me down. Help!!!
Our Enchanted Princess
6 days ago
4 comments:
Oh Ellie! You have entered the talk till you drop phase! Will it end? Probably not!!!!!! :) I have tried everything from eyecontact to uttering an occasional "uh huh" or "really", and nothing seems to work. Does she pull on your leg? or tap your arm? The other day we were all in the car and BayLee would say "Mom?" before each sentence so finally Adam said "let's see if you can go the whole way to the store without saying mom". Well, that lasted about a quarter of a mile. My mom said "well, one day you will ask me what to do when they STOP talking to you, so enjoy the moment". :) Good luck.....
Now you know why when you keep calling mom and I do not hear you until you say MARILYN. It is years of blocking out your voice with incessant talking. Yes all kids do this and all parents develop selective hearing. Try answering her question with silly answers like No I am deaf right now. And Who is mommy? It will get her more aware of what she is doing and you can have a good laugh and she will see that you are listening but I think maybe there are times when you have developed selective hearing and have not been listening so she is determined, as we all know Gwen is, to have you hear her very important information. She is so sweet. I thought it was funny yesterday when she was totally ignoring me when I was talking to her. I finally got her to react to at least know she was hearing me. I should have said Do you hear me Gwen :)
Oh, that would be draining on the old patience reserve! Bran lately has been asking "what this, Mama?" about pretty much every single thing. Even if there's a group of pretty much identical items (often things he's already familiar with) ducks or something, he has to point to several of them and ask, "what this, Mama?" I know this stage will be over all too soon, and I will miss it, but I still have to very purposefully take a deep breath to answer him cheerfully after the 20th time he asks about something he already knows. Ahhh, motherhood :)
Okay, I have to correct the above...that comment was posted while they were napping, and after they got up, I was reminded it's "what this thing, Mama? what this thing?" Though I don't know how I forgot the "thing," I hear it often enough! Good thing kids are so dang cute, huh?!
Post a Comment