The weather is warmer here, and the sunshine seems to have robbed our kids of their hearing ability. Yesterday I asked Catie to put her shoes away about 17 times. I’m not normally a yeller, but I’m starting to see the gratification. MAYBE YOU CAN HEAR THIS?!
I’m sure the kids’ teachers are also struggling with the hearing-loss epidemic. Spring Fever is in the kids’ veins, and they’re done with tedious instructions like “Could you please come here?”
We took a family walk this weekend, and Sam could not seem to hear anything I said. “Sam, don’t poke people with that stick.” “Sam, did you hear me?” “Sam! Give me your stick!” It was like taking stroll with Helen Keller. He ran into stuff with his stick, he whacked his sister with it, and when I finally took it from him, he said he hadn’t heard me asking for it.
Maybe it’s me? Maybe I’m nagging so much they tune me out? (Yes, probably.) Maybe it’s them? Maybe they all have some genetic neoropathway deficiency. One day we will discover they only had 10% of their hearing all through their childhood. (Unlikely since they seem to hear each other well.) Or maybe they’re just kids. They’re kids who have big days filled with rules and jobs and homework and responsibilities. Maybe they just want a little quiet space to daydream and not think about picking up their shoes. Maybe they’re deep in their own minds, fantasizing about a summer of swimming pools, lazy mornings, and hours of freetime to ask me what they should do next.
And when that time comes, I suppose I could pretend like I don’t hear them.
