My son, the Chinese Water Torture...

It is extremely hard to read and post when one's son is keeping up a non stop monologue regarding a B movie we saw yesterday. At 5, he's already on to me. He knows that uh huh and yup and you did mean that Mommy's not really listening.

Now we're on to his dreams.

:hi:

:crazy:

:hug:

MrGrumpy got neutered. :o

:hi:

:D

I bet the hubby is cuddly as a kitten now!

;)

Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokemon. Ah, well, he's reading the stuff now, so that makes it worthwhile...

That must be why I spend so much time in the Lounge--the adult conversation!

:evilgrin:

;)

The kids, I mean. :7

Yeah, I think about that sometimes. This is the little guy who chatters for hours in the back of the car.

When he was a baby, we drove to San Diego (he was about 6 months) and he just chattered wordlessly to himself the whole way, often stopping to giggle quietly. If only I'd had a tape recorder...

reaches for Kleenex...

sigh.

I did as well. Right now he's upstairs "chatting" with Great grandma. :hi:

daughter that I LOVE her and want to hear EVERYTHING but I need 5 minutes of quiet, please??? She was always more than happy to do this... and I always thanked her and made a joke of it...

Communicate. Let the child know you have needs and expectations as well! They do love boundaries and it teaches them to be considerate of others.

It doesn't have to be a long, apologetic explanation. Just keep it simple and don't feel guilty for looking out for your needs too.

He is a sensitive one and I always consider that...perhaps too much. :hi:

if you do it with kindness and love, but NO apologies, it sets the frame for those critical boundaries that kids truly need.

My son had really bad ear infection problems and really couldn't hear until he was 2+ years old. Once he could hear and the language caught on it was like continual verbal diarrhea. He had to tell me every second of all the TV shows he watched. It was great in the store though - I could always hear where he was. He could always talk to himself - didn't have to be a real audience. The three way mirror was good too since he he then had three more people to listen to him talk. One time I had taken his sister to kindergarten at 8:00 that morning. He had started talking before we got in the car. At 2:30 I was going back to pick her up and he had talked to me every minute of that day. I finally turned around and told him to not say a word until we got home and then he had to talk to his sister and not me.

Funny how little boys are chatterboxes. Kind of blows the stereotypical myths out of the water.

Three way mirror...I'll have to get one of those. ;)

How does the Chinese water torture weigh against the benefits of being a parent?



Edited to note that I don't mean to be nosy or start a flame war about how children end your life for all practical purposes, but I'm struggling with the issue of possibly procreating some day, and I wanted an honest opinion from one who's been there. :hi:

little boy's attributes far outweigh the drawbacks. It is time consuming to "discuss" things with him, but I do know it's going to be one of those memories we call "precious" twenty years from now.

:hi: Good luck, whatever you decide. Personally, I'm for children.

Start throwing in questions like "But what about the fish?" Make him seem like the one not paying attention.

prattling on about salmon for an hour. ;)

One day he won't want to talk to you and you'll long for those questions.

My friend, Michelle, at work wishes she could have them just a little longer.

hours of kindergarten each day. I worked when our daughter was young and wish I could have some of those days back. She's 14 and already not wanting to talk with Mom.

:hi:

He is 20 now and away at college. During high school he would come in to talk but it always seemed to be just when we were ready to turn out the light. And he still talked on and on and I would try to keep my eyes open, knowing it was a good thing. He did, however, have enough sense to hold back the things I would have REALLY been interested in but had reached the age where you draw a line between what you tell your parents and what you don't. His older sister was never like this. She is 23 now and still nonverbal. Her adolescence was more along the nightmare line. We all managed to survive it (the artsy fartsy types seem to do a more dramatic adolescence) but she was born nonverbal and I am sure will remain so throughout her life. My 13-year-old is a chatterbox and a snuggler still (when her friends can't see her) but the jury is still out on how the whole adolescence thing will go.

As far as the question about whether or not to have kids, only you can decide that. I always knew I wanted them but it was far harder than I could ever imagine. It is the first time in your life you are called upon to be totally unselfish. That baby does not care about your basic human rights like sleeping, eating, bathing and if you get to do those things it is gravy. Life is no longer about you - it's about them. I worked at home while raising my kids and that was probably the hardest thing I could choose but I just wanted to raise them myself. And sometimes it is excruciatingly boring - spoon it in one end, wipe it off the other, get the bug out their mouth, stop hitting your sister, etc. But would I do it again? In a heartbeat. Wish I had one more. They have turned out to be phenomenonal human beings that I can't believe we were lucky enough to produce.