Thursday, January 21, 2010

how would you handle this?

The following exchange happens hourly at our house. Several times hourly, in fact.

Simon: Mummy?

Me: Yes?

Simon: Mummy?

Me: What?

Simon: Mummy?

Me: What??

Simon: Mummy?

Me: WHAT!?

Simon: Mummy?

Me: WHAT!!!

That last one is me SCREAMING at him. I just can't take it. If I don't respond with a "yes" or a "what", he just yells, "Mummymummymummy..." and starts crying that "you're not lidining (listeninging) to meeeeeeeeee!" or "but you're not andwering (answering) meeeeeeee!".

But when I DO respond, HE doesn't listen. It drives me to distraction and makes Peter seriously crazy. If it happened once or twice or even a few times a day, that would be one thing. But it's EVERY TIME HE OPENS HIS MOUTH to say/ask/demand/tell me anything. ANYTHING.

Do you think it could be his hearing?? He has his yearly check up next Thursday and I'll definitely be mentioning it, but I'm at a loss as to what to do until then. Every time I yell or scream at him, I regret it immediately afterwards, but it's often the only thing that will stop the cycle.

Any other ideas??

ETA: Thanks for all who replied here, by emails and on Twitter. Definitely some of the time it's because I have been ignoring him or am preoccupied with someone/something else. Some of the times I'm not looking at him when I respond. But in the case above that happened right before I wrote the post. I was standing not five feet away from him, starring RIGHT AT HIM. That's why it's so maddening!

Another conversation we had later today went like this:

Simon: Mummy, we are hungry.

Me (standing at the counter): Okay sweetheart, I'm making your lunch right now.

Simon: Mummy! WE. ARE. HUNGRY!

Me: Simon. I said I'm making lunch right now.

Simon: Mummy! You are not answering me!

Me (turning to him and putting my nose inches from his) : Simon! I just answered you TWO TIMES and told you I'm making your lunch RIGHT NOW. I did answer you. You're not listening to mummy.

Simon: Oh. I didn't hear you.

He says he didn't hear us quite often, which is why I wonder if he actually has a problem with his hearing. However, it might very well be that he's just making excuses. I haven't ruled either option out yet.

16 comments:

  1. I think it's just a young child acting his age! My oldet son has done this before, too! My son is very good at selectively ignoring me, too.

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  2. My youngest son used to do that when he was 3-4 yrs. Sometimes, he would ask me the same question over and over again. It drove me crazy! It might be just a phase, I'm sure he'll grow out of it, or he's clingy and just wants your attention.

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  3. My daughter does the exact same thing...only sometimes she ends it with "I love you" or "do you love me?" or "are you my friend?" but many times she never asks a thing. We tried turning it around on her..."Amelia?"..."Yes?"..."Amelia?"...and so on. She got the hint...thought it was funny, then cut it out...for a while anyway.

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  4. For awhile I wondered if my daughter had hearing problems because she kept asking the same question. Then I realized that she didn't always understand my answer. So now I say it a different way each time. And sometimes I ask her to stop asking me questions.

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  5. Hmm, I've heard a lot of people say their kids around this age do that, but maybe it is his hearing you never know.

    Speaking of the 'elusive video' you mentioned on my blog, where is the 1 year picture of Andrew I keep looking for??

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  6. This is my house right now. There are a few things:

    -My ds does it at times when he's looking for attention. Mommy and daddy are having a conversation? He starts 'mommy'...It doesn't matter when/how I answer him,he just repeats it.

    -When he's trying to avoid something. (Like bed time)

    -When his sister needs something at the same time. ha!

    I think it's age related. They don't have patience yet to really get it, or his little mind gets ahead of his words.

    It's a lot of fun eh? ;)

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  7. Oh gosh I hope its not a hearing problem! Or if it is, I hope that its easily curable, and nothing too serious. I don't know anything about hearing issues though, as I've never been presented with them.

    Good luck. Try not to pull your hair out, haha.

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  8. My 3yo does this to me all the time - makes me crazy. He's obviously doing it because it amuses him which might be slightly different than if he's just not paying attention. I do seem to get him tripped up when I respond with his name instead of what?

    him: Mummy?
    me: what?
    him: Mummy?
    me: what?
    him: Mummy?
    me: Kiernan?
    him: what?

    MWAHAHAHA ;)

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  9. I hope you can get an answer soon. Hopefully you can get an assessment quickly. We had our sons hearing assessed but it took months for us to get the appointment. He was fine, but still, months. Hopefully things go faster in Gatieau.

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  10. Ooh, that sounds frustrating... and funny too! I don't know what I'd do, but I'm sure we all did it as kids as well (at least to some extent). Could be that he had a question but doesn't know how to ask it. I know that happened to me often, and I'd say 'mummy' before really forming the question in my mind first, and then I wouldn't know what I was trying to say, so I'd just repeat it to make sure I still had her attention. Hahaha. Kids are silly sometimes, aren't they?

    I hope you find out if it is his hearing or not. My cousing had a hearing problem, which made it difficult for him to speak as well. They fixed that and everything was great for him (except the stereo, which was now 'too loud' in his opinion, poor guy).

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  11. How would I handle this? Oh, exactly the same way you do! First, normal voice. Second, my try-so-hard-to-be-patient mommy voice. Third, crazy-mommy starts screaming! Ack. It's probably nothing, but worth getting the hearing checked out anyhow. Just to be sure.

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  12. Amy, I think it's wonderful you have recorded this, so Simon will be able to read it when he is a father! Hugs, A. Dianne

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  13. sometimes I ask her to stop asking me questions.

    Work from home India

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  14. Oh Simon. You are going to make your parents hair turn gray. I love you, kiddo.

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  15. Quite honestly, I think in the time it takes from him to finish saying "mommmmyyyy" to you responding, he simply gets distracted and therefore does not hear you. I can honestly say kids attention spans are WAY shorter than ours!

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  16. Oh, and BTW, my 2yr old's name is Nathaniel! ;-p

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