A Weekend Reprieve

When you have children, there is a certain noise level to which you become accustomed. Even when they aren't fighting or trying to wrest the remote control for the TV from one another, there is never anything akin to quiet. Children make noise, even when they are behaving well.

And yet, give a mother just 48 hours of peace and quiet and she quickly adjusts.

This weekend the children were away at their cousin's house. A pair just made for my pair - a slightly older boy to play video games, discuss Pokemon card collections and pass on outgrown clothes for my son to hang with and a slightly younger girl for my daughter to adopt as her little sister/doll/plaything.

It was the first quiet time my husband and I have had since our brief honeymoon. We were married in May and since then our time has been spent working and blogging and listening to the sounds of children who unfortunately don't go back to school until September.

The children arrived home this evening in typical fashion, each trying to out-talk the other, first through rapidity of speech and then through volume. It didn't take long for them to tire of us though and within minutes they had recruited the neighbor children to take part in their mission to re-acclimate us to noise.

What I found interesting is my initial reaction to what was basically very minor noisemaking for four children. It was like a volcanic eruption of words and sounds, screeches and squeals. But two hours into their homecoming and I realized that I am already learning to block out the titters and teasing and listening only for sounds of dangerous mayhem.

I often wondered how my mother dealt with the noise and confusion of five children, I can barely handle two. I do now know why my mother gave up on fastidiousness in housework, however.

Upon arriving, my daughter remarked "Oh, the house looks so clean".

Yeah, that lasted about as long as the quiet.