Aug 27 2008
Quiet Panic
Before I was a mom I used to enjoy the sounds of silence in my home. When I was caught up with work, school work, cleaning, and whatever other random project I was working on, I enjoyed sitting on my couch with a good book and absorbing the quiet. Sure, my husband made some noise from time to time (especially working on those really loud cars in our garage) but other than that I enjoyed my few quiet moments.
I realized the other day that a profound change has taken place since I’ve become a parent. I’m actually pretty lucky to have a son that isn’t too high maintenance at this point. He makes a lot of noise, he rearranges everything in the house on a regular basis, and he is a whirlwind of energy but at least he can entertain himself for short periods of time throughout the day. Not bad.
As I was working at my computer the other day I was struck suddenly by a sense of panic at what I realized I was hearing in my house. It was nothing. Quiet. I think it was only going on for about a minute before I noticed how peaceful it seemed. I bolted from my chair to locate my son who was luckily not doing anything too bad (he was only taking everything out of his dresser drawers and reorganizing it into piles on his floor - a relatively quick mess to put away).
I realized however, that the sound of silence is no longer soothing to a parent. It is almost always the sign of something going terribly wrong. It is a simple mathematical equation. K (kid) + X (variable) + Silence = anxiety, or terror if you prefer. The variable (X) can be anything - a permanent marker, a bottle of shampoo, a dog, whatever.
Go ahead, do the math.
