Silence is Golden

Have you ever seen the movie, "French Kiss" with Meg Ryan and Kevin Kline?  Meg Ryan is speaking with the concierge and she bluntly asks him "Do you enjoy being that rude? Because when you do that, it just gets underneath my skin and it makes me... completely insane."  He replies with, Thank you, madam, for the fascinating lesson in our cultural differences."  I absolutely love this scene.  The concierge is completely deadpan when he delivers his comeback to a stressed out Meg Ryan.  We have all been stressed out at one time or another and someone who is so cool, calm, and collected just makes us completely insane.

Besides the composed person which can drive us batty are the ones who whistle randomly.  These whistlers will not even have a song you can recognize either, it is just random notes.  I was in the store last week and thought I had moved away from the offending whistler when I find her following me down the aisle.  I look back as if she had startled me and all she does is smile at my little girl and passes on by with no concept that I crave SILENCE.  Yes silence...its what most moms dream about.  We have all run across the loud cell phone talker in the store and it is amazing what insight you have into their lives by listening to their one conversation.  It has been proven that when we get on the phone our voices will rise thus making the whole store privy to our life.

So back to silence.  I read once where people are uncomfortable with silence and being by themselves.   Are we not happy with ourselves?  Do we need constant interaction?  I was telling my husband how I had run into a mom at babies play group who basically told me her life story in a matter of an hour.  I don't even think she came up for a breath of air.  I literally could go into deep detail about why she stopped nursing at four months, how horrible her birthing experience was at the hospital, and some of her adoption history.  Hubby told me she is probably lonely and yes thinking back I would have to agree.  However, I really don't have the energy especially being pregnant for people who have energy vampire sucking skills.  They can be quite draining and you do feel bad for them, but you realize that you can't be their listening box.  You just can't!!!

Now what is hard is how to outmaneuver these vampires and to slip away easily.  Maybe you need a drink a water, bathroom break, or to check on your child.  Those are I think the best excuses to get away. However, these vampires are tricky and can easily rope you into another conversation.  So try to engage another parent in a discussion and if you have to go into something crazy such as hyrdoponics or the latest craze in kombucha fermentation.  Yep I think those subjects could be effective in creating distance.  Do I need to add links in the how to make kombucha?  By the way, I do think homemade is definitely better than store bought.

Anyway, silence is golden and if you come up with how to handle the whistlers, please let me know.  I am so tempted to tell them they aren't very good at it.  Maybe then just maybe they will get the hint that silence is the ultimate mommy heaven.  Well unless you like the music group Garbage and enjoy one of their classics and you guessed it "Silence is Golden."