Silence is overrated when it comes to a wandering toddler. Every parent knows that when your toddler is quiet, you better find out why. It is a scientific fact—silence is not golden when your toddler is playing. Silence almost always indicates they have discovered something to play with that is a NoNo.
It is amazing, how can children so young know how to be quiet as a “mouse” when they know they are into something they should not be? It almost seems instinctual. Your toddler could be playing right in front of your eyes and all seems right. In a flash, they are out of sight and the chatter you were hearing stops.
You go to look and there sits your little angel, playing with the phone cord or the kitty litter. What puzzles me is how they know to be so quiet when playing where they have been told not to get into something.They have a keen knack for getting into TROUBLE.
The other day McKenna (aka Miss Mouse), who is only 10 months old, was running around my living room incessantly chatting away. The next moment I noticed the silence. I went around the corner and there she is quietly feasting on the kitty food. Not a peep, just complete silence. She knows she is not supposed to be in the cat’s dish. So—how does she know how to not only sneak over there but keep it from me when she was so noisy a moment before?
I have talked to many parents and they all agree. The silence is deafening when their toddler found the wrong place to play. But, while we have to remove them from the NoNo, the kids are delighted that they got away with it for any length of time. McKenna’s face was pure joy when I found her; even though she had her hand tapped and was moved.
I have mentioned often, how fast children grow, “in the blink of an eye”. Now, multiply that by about a thousand and that is how fast they can find the wrong place to be. I can look away for a couple minutes and just like ‘Speedy Gonzales’ she is across the house and into the toilet (if I forget to close the door). Astoundingly fast—to say the least.
I know when there is silence in my house and it is not bedtime, I am in for a surprise when I locate McKenna. I have found her in the cat food, the kitty litter, the toilet (only her hands), in the closet and under the table. That would not be so bad but climbing over the chair rungs she scrambled over to the planter and in the minute it took me to get to her, she was happily chomping
on a root. She was only too glad to hand me her trophy, with her teeth marks all over it.
I would agree that Silence was Golden, if it meant the house was at peace and McKenna was tucked safely in bed, But she squeaks in her sleep (thus why I refer to her as Mouse) and also talks. When there is silence around Miss McKenna—it means I better get ready to pretend I am very disappointed with her so she does not repeat what it is she just snuck into. But the truth is, I am tickled pink when I find what new adventure she has discovered and why the house is suddenly filled with—SILENCE.
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The same can be said for hubbies
What a great article and what a great subject!! After raising three children and helping with grandchildren, I know too well that silence is NOT Golden, unless then are confined in their pack’N’Play or in their crib for napping or nightly sleeping. And then Silence is GOLDEN:)