I was traveling in the truck with 6 anxious children and one tired husband. All the windows were rolled up and all the doors were closed. At times there seemed to be so much noise that it felt like every square inch of space in the truck was filled with some type of sound that I swear I could see. It was like "shut up", "don't touch me", "move over", "stop", "are we almost there yet", "I gotta use the bathroom", and tons of other words were just floating around. My ears had maxxed out on the amount of noise they could process so, my eyes had begun to see the words. I felt dizzy. What possessed us to pack up all of these people and put them in one vehicle and drive 3 hours? What were we thinking? Were we sane when we decided this? Oh, yeah, I remember, I wanted to vacation without them. I was thinking of sending these little people to their real parents, but my husband who maintains that we are their real parents, insisted on taking them with us. He has this thing about never leaving them, he loves the feeling of noise crowding out your existence. And just when I thought I would lose it, he came up with the most beautiful idea. SOUND PROBATION! When one of my children says something inappropriate, whether is calling their sibling a doo doo head, playing with the whoopie cushion, or using a ugly tone to communicate, he places them on sound probation. Quite simply they are not allowed to make another sound, or they can expect Mt. Daddy to erupt. Its such a beautiful thing. I think the words alone create some type of fear in them. I just love the way it sounds.......SOUND PROBATION........lovely silence. Do you have creative ways to achieve silence?
It's so strange but I actually use music in a similar way. It drowns out all the other noises ( kids essentially ) and I hear the music. I am following you from under 100 club at mbc. Hope you follow me too. I have written a post today about music. Hope you read it.
ReplyDeleteHa! We always played the "quiet game"...you know the one where you see who can be the quiestest the longest. Works for about 10 minutes...but that 10 minutes are bliss!
ReplyDeleteI have to say since DVD players were invented for cars, that has been the best thing. When a movie is playing, no one talks or argues.
Whoa! Does it work!! I'm gonna have to tell my hubby to try it!
ReplyDeleteLOL no ideas here. Just lock em in a sound proof room ha ha
ReplyDeleteThanks for dropping by and signing up. I am a follower
I will have to try this. Oh please god let it work! haha stopping by from SITS!
ReplyDeleteThe sound probation sounds like a winner. Lucky for me my son doesn't get too rowdy but I can imagine on a 3 hour trip this might come in handy.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea! Brilliant. Like you, I really love the name too.
ReplyDeleteHaha!! Ok I'm going to have to remember that one! My mom always said "let's play the silent game"... not sure how well it worked on us! haha.
ReplyDeleteWhat an adorable blog!! I'm so excited to read more of your family tales! :)
That's a good one! I like that. It's wonderful to see parents actually have children who listen to them.
ReplyDeleteThere's also the "talking stick" idea you could try. The only person allowed to talk is the one holding the stick or whatever thing you want to use. This is like in "Lord of the Flies" but I also heard it at a couples seminar we attended.
Congrats on your SITS day!
I love the idea of sound probation--great concept! I really love that you are raising your kids to be respectful of you and their father and that you are teaching them to listen and behave. Too many people seem to let that fall by the wayside nowadays. Kudos to you and happy FB day on SITS!
ReplyDeleteWow! That does sound scary and maybe I will try that. :-)
ReplyDeleteI only have half as many as you do but the noise makes the walls vibrate. I'm going to have to try this one! I just need a good consequence for when the inevitably break their Sound Probation!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, we'll definitely have to try this.:)LOL Our oldest talks nonstop, and our youngest loves to squeal....
ReplyDeleteMy dad would have loved something like that - there were only three of us but we were LOUD. haha.
ReplyDeleteHappy SITS Day! :)
My little man is too young for that, but I will be stealing that idea. I like that, SOUND PROBABTION! What a great concept.
ReplyDeleteKaren
Too funny. My oldest (almost 5) and I play a game in the car because he is one big question asker...it's called..."Who can not talk the longest." Sadly the other two are still too little to get in on the fun.
ReplyDeleteHappy SITS
Alex
I LOVE it! Very cool!
ReplyDeleteHappy SITS!
Hmmm, I wonder if that would work...
ReplyDeleteHey, this is a great idea! I will have to keep this handy for when I have kids. Right now, I just shut myself up in a room and read... but I'm not sure how I would deal with 6 kids making noises in one car. :P
ReplyDeleteI loved the idea of this so much I just used it on my 5 year old. He cocked his brow at me as if to say "Huh? What is that all about?" (He's being quiet though!) Happy Sits Day!
ReplyDeleteThankfully most of the time we have a quiet ride but will have to remember this for the next time they are a pain.
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