We're fast talkers

By Melissa

I really like talking. A lot. I especially like talking to my husband.

At one time this was easy enough. Before our daughter arrived we'd grab a drink after work and sit out on the porch chatting for hours, dazzling one another with our superb conversational skills.

Even after our daughter arrived, we'd still have long conversations on the porch. We'd just take our baby outside with us. She didn't have much to contribute to the conversation, so she'd sit on the ground on a blanket and chew on her toes and drool. Mostly we'd talk about how she was chewing on her toes, but also about other things.

Then it happened. She started talking too, and she wanted to talk with us!?

Suddenly our long, leisurely conversations became rapid fire discussions, before Madison had something to share. All our funny stories were being crammed into 5 word sentences:

"Funny Thing Today. Ha Ha!"

This wasn't satisfactory so we practiced speaking with several intermissions.

Me: "So, today we're out to lunch with my mother....."
Madison: "Leeee Deeeeee MMMMMM!"
Me: "Oh! Really? Well then, back to my story...where was I?"
Madison "EEEEEE EEEEEE!"
Me: "Fascinating! So... anyway... lunch..."

That didn't work well either.

It only got worse as Madison began speaking in full sentences. Robust sentences. Long sentences, with lots of important details which commanded all our attention. Then we added another future talker to our family, our son.

Now our son is three and Max has the same love of the spoken word the rest of our family has. Between the four of us I think we're single handedly responsible for the noise pollution problem in the entire state of Michigan.

We're trying to teach our children to "Wait for your turn,", but this is no easy task since it means I also have to wait my turn. Sometimes at the dinner table, while Madison is sharing a story I feel myself bursting at the seams to interrupt, and I start bouncing in my chair with my hand raised, softly saying, "Oh, oh, oh!".

Really, it's quite rude, and my 5-year-old has to remind me to "Wait for your turn."

I want to but it's, you know, hard to wait for my turn.

Then when it finally is my turn to talk, I have to talk really fast to get out what I want to say, before it's someone else's turn.

Because in this house, if you're going to say it, you'd better say it fast. We're Fast Talkers.

Comments

[Robin]

Rich and I are quite chatty but Lillianna has us both beat. She can turn a 2 minute story into a 30 minute short movie! Sometimes she doesn't even take a breath. There are times that I just have to say, "Ok. Mommy needs some chat time with Daddy now. I haven't seen him all day either." Then the guilt hits. The truth is with our work schedule we have such a small window of chat time as it is. When I come home at 11pm or midnight I can't talk at all. I am so damn tired.
It is definitely hard to wait for your turn!!

[Emily]

I always thought I could talk the ears of of anything...until Hannah started.Sometimes I have to just say.."Hannah,quite,please,just for one minute.."lol

[Meg]

This sounds awfully, awfully familliar. With a 3, a 5, and a 9yo, it's very difficult to get a word in edgewise. This is part of the reason that the kids have a (what they feel is a ridiculously early) bedtime of 8:00. Tai and I would never have the chance to talk if they didn't go to bed early!