Always on vacation the noises are different. We hear more
yelling from the kids and more disagreeing as they have less structure and fewer
activities to keep them busy. The fridge opens more, the shower go on less, the
TV on more, the alarm clocks set less.
The noises are different and sometimes I love the lack of
structure and sometimes I find it harder (especially when the kids are all teasing
each other loudly-their big fight these days is always who is a better skier and trying to
rip down the skiing skills of the other)
We are here at cottage 4 days as taking two days of the
week the kids have off to be with the kids. Then going back to work and the
kids will stay at home without us and with my Mom in the days.
Today I listened hard though and heard two very beautiful
sounds amongst the sometimes chaotic noise.
One was at 11am while Hubby and I were still sleeping.
Our new routine is after driving to skiing at 7:45am whoever drives comes back
to bed and goes straight back to sleep.
All the sudden I hear the sound of dishes. Lots of dishes.
Plates, forks, cups. It almost sounded like the dishwasher was being emptied.
Could it be? We were not even up yet and someone from the goodness of their
heart did this without being nagged or having it pinned as a job? No probably-
just one of the kids making breakfast and using lots of dishes right?
Come downstairs and it was Bear! He did this! What a thrill.
PS my kids are good at lots of things but cleaning up without being asked is
not one of them clearly.
Second nice sound was Beauty. She has a fit in my
bathroom about something stupid and threw her toothbrush on the floor and would
not pick it up. We had a screaming fit about this. A few mins later she comes
up and gives me a hug and very sweetly says a simple “I am sorry”. Very
tenderly and genuinely too. Wow what a rarity and what a treasure this was.
Do I have low expectations for good sounds or what?
Throughout the day we forced them outside to skate with
us and walk with us and we heard a lot of unpleasant noises of “did we have to?”
“We want to go home and play computer and relax”. But when we train ourselves as parents to
listen hard enough there are always the sounds hidden amongst the noise. That
is like symphonies to our ears.
We need to listen,
And to listen we need time.
And that time has to be carved out very deliberately.
Or it will be all but forgotten.
