Baby Talk: I Finally Get It

It has only taken me about thirty years to understand.

Somewhere between my oldest daughter, Sarah, and her brother, Doug, my wife became a stay-at-home mom. It just made more sense and it was better for the children. Things were tight but we managed. Then when Kat and Matt came along, Priscilla was there for them and to do all the parenting stuff like make lunches, scout leader, and kiss the boo boos. I tried to help as much as I could but there was no contest when it came to baking cookies. She went back to work when Matt started school.

The point I’m getting to (I know it took me awhile), is that when I would come home from work, the first thing Priscilla wanted to do was talk. It could be about my job, office gossip or whatever was in the news. To be honest, this was the last thing I wanted to be doing after spending four hours doing a talk show and three or four more hours researching things to talk about tomorrow. She was honest with me and told me that after spending the day with toddlers she NEEDED some adult conversation.

I had forgotten about that until this week.

Baby talk: I finally get it

I’m still down here in Virginia Beach where the workday starts early. Everyone is out of the house by 8 a.m. and sometimes my daughter doesn’t get home until almost 6 p.m. So there we are, just the two of us, Liam and me. We do talk. At least I do. He’s still got his own vocabulary except for “Maaaaa,” “Dadda,” or “bye.” He does shake his head “no” and nods for “yes” so we manage.

When dinner time rolls around I’m just like Priscilla was almost thirty years ago except this time Sarah is in the role that I had back then. She’s tired after her day as a Service Manager at a bank and I NEED some adult conversation. Anything!

Here’s a sample of what is discussed during my day:

“Do you want to watch Mickey or Elmo?”
“Don’t hit the puppy!”
“Do you want a bubba?”
“Do you have poopy pants?”
“Can I change your dipey?”
“Wait a minute. Grampy has to go potty.”

At dinner time you gotta give me something.

Please — anything!

Sarah is getting better but we still have the occasional:

Me: “How was your day?”
Sarah: “Fine.”

Me: “Anything interesting happen?”
Sarah: “Not really.”

ARE YOU SERIOUS? You’ve been gone over 9 hours. NOTHING happened?

Any interesting characters come through the drive-up window?
What did you have for lunch?
What was the biggest deposit of the day?
Ever forget the combination to the vault?
What is the combination to the vault?
Can you show me the inside of the vault? At night? When nobody else is there?

Baby Talk

Let this be a reminder to anyone who comes home to someone who has spent the day in ToddlerLand: They need you and they want to hear about your day. The world. Anything that doesn’t end in “y!” (Dipey, booty, poopy. Get the idea?) And everybody has something to tell.

My brother used to frustrate me after we finally got together after a few weeks. I would say, “Whatcha been up to?” His response? (Go ahead. I’m sure you’ve got it by now). “Nothing.” In six or seven weeks you’ve done nothing? You haven’t read a good book? Found a new show to binge watch? Eaten a great meal? Had a lousy meal?

Maybe we think our day-to-day activities would bore people because they’re not “exciting” enough but I love hearing what people do and how they go about the things you might think are routine.

I have an idea— Let’s all think of one or two things we could say the next time someone asks, “What’s new?” We can make a game out of it to see if they’re surprised because they expected your response to be “Nothing.” Think about it for just a bit here —- isn’t there something you could say? Just the fact that you’re healthy is something to share.

Conclusion

I’ve always said that everyone has a story. Everyone has something to share. Go ahead and share it. You may be with someone who really wants (or needs) to hear it.

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