That is complete jibberish

As parents we hear a lot! A whole lot of complete jibberish from our children. When they are very young it is cute and laughable. Sometimes it is so laughable it demands an audience.  We hear ourselves saying, "Say that again, no wait a minute, go get dad, I want him to hear it too!" Like the time our four year old could not be persuaded Hannah Montanna did not in fact live inside our television.  Or when our adopted son proclaimed upon being told he was adopted, "But I thought I came from dad's belly and my sister came from mom's belly." His was not a question but leaned on the side of a complete point of indisputable fact. Kids say the darndest things is right. And for a time their jibberish can be quite entertaining.

As our children grow, as parents we tend to lean in as we hear their jibberish. We are no longer waiting with tickled baited breath for their punch line as much as we are with hope and a prayer, measuring the logic and coherence of thought. Yes and we listen, and we listen and we listen. Not only do we listen, we listen with complete deference to the moment at hand. Now we hear things like things we might have even said at their age. Like the time I told my mother there was absolutely no need for me to learn to cook or clean because I was totally going to have a maid when I grew up. After my "gonna have a maid" spanking, I spit-shined cleaned the kitchen and took over watching the chicken frying on the stove with the death scare of "it better not burn either" lurching over my shoulder. My jibberish continued clear up to the day I left home at age 17. The distinct difference between my jibberish and my kid's jibberish was this. I could not question my mom's response to my spewed foolishness. No, you did not question anything you were told. If it was told to you by an adult it was law. There was very little room, well more truthfully, no room for discussion. Nodda. On the other hand, we give our children complete ground for jibberish. They can question anything and everything we tell them, always. That is not to say sometimes we don't defer answering but they know if they ask, we will answer. From a mother's perspective I have a single reason why I entertain jibberish and this is it. I am trying while they are still with me under my roof, working to redirect this jibberish before the world out there has the chance to validate it. What I mean by this in short, before they meet that "one fool" who convinces them their jibberish makes complete sense and my child falls under that fool's spell.

So I listen and tolerate a whole lot of foolish talk now to keep them from meeting "the fool" who turns their life into complete jibber. I choose now to hear the naïve mindset  that minimum wage is a lot of money. I spend time debating what is "too much" make up for a teenager. I cringe and then talk through their view that race does not matter. society does not judge color. Yep I lean in, bite my bottom lip, settle my nerves and then do the only thing I think that will matter, I talk. We talk until we exhaust words on each side. Until the jibberish between us is broken into enough small fragments that my child has to work really hard to put it back together in their mind or chooses to cast it into the "I may have to revisit my thoughts on this" can.

Either way, I always feel one tiny step closer to my child not listening to the fool who later on enters with a wagon full of jibberish to sell. The moral of this story is talk and listen to your children, always.

 P.S. I never did have that maid and I can cook! That earlier thinking was complete jibberish.