Listening Ears

How many times have we told our children to put on their listening ears? I bet hundreds. I bet hundreds of thousands. I know I have. Unfortunately most of the time these elusive special ears seem to be M.I.A. Perhaps they are hidden in the toy box, or are collecting dust under their beds? I'm not quite sure, I just know that when they really need them, they are usually hard to find. What I have realized lately is that I have to remind myself to put on my own listening ears. So often I find myself nodding vaguely, mumbling "uh huh, yeah" to whatever the children have just asked me. Is it the persistent "mom, mom, mom, mom, mom" that we hear minute after minute, hour after hour, day after day that causes us to eventually tune it out. I yell at the kids when they ignore me, but I find myself ignoring them just as much.

"Mom, can we tie sheets onto ourselves and jump off the roof" they might be asking, while I peruse Facebook, talk on the phone, balance the checkbook and check the e-mail all at the same time. "Uh huh, OK, sure." I'll answer. "Mom, can we build a sparkly helium balloon and take off in it across the town?" they'll ask and I'll probably answer "uh, huh, just a minute" while I unload the dishwasher, fold laundry and start dinner. One of these days I'm going to get in trouble, if I don't find my damn listening ears.

I can hear it now. "Mom, can we take the car and joyride around town driving way too fast picking up all our friends?"

No, then again, I think THAT is one request I'll most definitely hear.

Hello? Can Anyone Hear Me?

If I couldn't hear my own shrill voice myself I might think I had been stricken mute, for all the attention the kids were paying to me today. I worked today, so I was only with them for about 6 hours. 6 hours in which they not only did not listen to me, but just ignored me and pretended that I wasn't even speaking. No matter how many times I told them to settle down, stop dragging each and every cushion and blanket off of each and every surface of the house, they just kept doing it. They were playing this game of covering each other up with blankets and pillows. It was fine until I noticed they were also piling other things on top of each other. Toys. Candles. Lamps. Clothes from my room. Then the game became not so acceptable. My muteness must come and go though because they were able to hear me when I told them that dinner was ready, but then I must have lost my voice again because they did not hear me when I told them to eat their green beans. I know that sometimes to do listen, it's just that right now I can't exactly come up with any examples to that effect. To correct this problem I just kept talking louder and louder and LOUDER as the night wore on, so that by the time I was trying unsuccessfully to get them into the tub I was screaming and I'm sure the entire neighborhood could hear me through the open windows. It's a wonder the police have never showed up to take me away in cuffs, which might actually result in me having a good nights sleep.

In the end they did listen, but only after I threatened to take t.v. away for the rest of the night and not let them watch "The Lion King" in Jack's bed. Jack got it right away, he must have seen the ferociousness in my eyes, but Abbey was slower to catch on. She just kept right on ignoring me while I asked her and then told her it was time to brush her teeth. "Jackie, I have to show you something, Jackie look at this, Jackie I have a secret" and on she went, just ignoring me as if I were not even in the room. Jack kept getting more and more scared looking. He knew that her not listening was going to affect his movie watching. Now it was serious. Finally he said "Abbey, do what mommy says or else we won't get to watch Lion King, brush your teeth." And you know what she did. She did it. She went in and brushed her teeth. Sure, listen to your brother, not me. I'm just your mother.