Are you Raising a Chatterbox?

So I was worried. Aarav was over two and hardly spoke. When he started uttering a few words, I heaved a sigh of relief. But when we couldn’t have a decent conversation because we were constantly interrupted by his comments, I got worried again. It wasn’t cute anymore. I don’t know how we reached here. Later on I found out he is sharing our family talks with his friends and relatives.

How ironic this is, that we as parents force our kids to respond, talk, perform, sing at the most unusual situations. And then when they grow up and this habit becomes annoying that we start *shhhing* them. If you have gone through any of the above; you are surely raising a chatterbox.

Teaching your children when NOT to talk has to start early. It may sound cute when they meddle in adult conversations in their innocent baby talk; but it may drive you crazy sometimes.

Aarav is an auditory child. It would appear that he’s busy with his building blocks sitting in a corner but his ears would intently listen to our talks about office which I shared with my husband every evening. I was surprised one day, when he came up to me and said “*Don’t go to office if she’s troubling you so much*.” And that was our cue. It may sound difficult but stop having serious conversation in front of your children. You never know when these blabbermouths will blurt out your secrets.

Explaining to your child the meaning of secret also is a must. You can’t just say “it’s a secret” and get away from it. Tell them, some things are only meant to be shared with your parents and it’s our little family secret.

There are other ways to encourage silence and subtle behaviour in your child. And one of them is having a quiet family time minus the gadgets and television noise. Use this time to CONVERSE as well as LISTEN to each other. We take turns in sharing about how our day went without interrupting each other. The basis here is to listen more than talk. There was also a time we had to enforce the raising hand rule when he had something to speak.

I have also faced many embarrassing moments when my chatterbox aired few of our family secrets out in the open. So we established a secret signal. I used to gently cough to get his attention and twitch my ear, which meant “stop talking”. Trust me; it took me a while to get this in practice. But it works like a charm. This is a like a silent reminder to your kid and also stops you from getting embarrassed in front of your family and friends.

In the end always listen to your children attentively. Let them speak their heart’s content after they come back from school or from the playground. There are times when you will hear repetitive stories but don’t be impatient. Talkative behaviour in kids is a phase and passes really quickly.