So my 14 month old is constantly making noise. Whether it’s babbling, calling for my husband, his brother or myself, screaming or crying…he’s just plain noisy! Most times this is for no other reason than to get someone’s attention to either pick him up or give him what he wants. For the most part, his rants usually work in his favor and someone will stop what they are doing to give him the attention he so desperately desires in that moment. Honestly, I’ve started to shy away from this a bit. There are times when I have to finish loading the dish washer or helping his brother with homework. I know that he’s ok and that allowing him to yell for a minute or two won’t hurt him. But every now and then his cry is different. His shriek is not quite at the same pitch and there seems to be a hint of pain in his voice. All moms know this sound…something is wrong!
My noisy baby boy is very much like most of our lives as parents. Whether it be work, the kids, a spouse, friends or other family there seems to be constant noise in our lives. Different people and things “yelling” at us for no other reason than to get our attention. Just like my son, these things usually get their way. We will bend over backwards to get that project finished for work or run our children 3 different places after school whether they need to be there or not. We ignore our bodies desperate desire for rest to feed the desire to make someone or something else happy.
I have found that a lot of my time as a working mother was spent giving attention to people and things that weren’t necessarily needs in the moment, but were mainly “noise.” The “noise” of staying up late to finish watching a television show, the “noise” of staying at work late 4 out of 5 days a week to be a good employee. The “noise” of what social media says I should be as a woman. Just like I know the difference between my son’s noise vs. his actual need for someone to help him, I am now growing to understand the difference between life’s noises vs. the things I need to do. I need to take care of my children. I need to be a good wife to my husband. I need to get housework done (Lord, help me.) I need to make sure my mom is ok. I need to be kind to people and teach my children to do the same. Most importantly, I need to take care of myself and get proper rest and exercise so that I can be a good mom, wife, daughter and friend.
While there’s absolutely nothing wrong with acknowledging the noise in all of our lives, let’s make sure that we know the difference between the noise and the needs. Letting the noise be noise for a little while won’t hurt anything. However, ignoring the needs can cause much damage, mainly to ourselves, if we don’t bother to take care of them first.
Danielle Davenport