OT: Do you have a loud house?

Okay, you are so not alone. 3 out of 4 of my kids are very loud. Sometimes we have to just send them all to thier beds for 30 minutes or so to have a break from all the noise. Or, you can send them all outside for a break. We talk often of using your INSIDE voice.

We have 6 kids, 1 of whom is deaf in one ear and HOH in the other. Let’s just say we all know when he has forgotten to put on his BAHA.

Aside from him, we have two more sons who I joke do NOT have a volume control. BTW, their hearing is fine b/c I’ve had it checked by our other DS’s audiologist LOL! They are just LOUD.

And like I said, 6 kids so that really adds to the noise level sometimes.

One thing we have done successfully is at dinner each weeknight, one of our 5 oldest is my kitchen helper (helps prepare meal as needed, set the table and clean up the kitchen). No, they don’t love that part (well they like the cooking part some), but anyway, we add a fun element by having the kitchen helper choose a question while we eat our meal together. Tonight DD asked “what do you most want  to do at the lake tomorrow?” She had a little help b/c she was having a hard time thinking of one. We are having a rare outing to my sister’s lakehouse tomorrow so everyone is thinking on that and excited.

DH or I will somtimes add to it by saying “and tell us why” or something to help them add more than just a single-word answer.

It is a small thing, but it really helps everyone have a turn to talk at our dinner table, which can somtimes be loud if everyone is trying to talk at once. We will somtimes then have another question Daddy will ask that is more thought-provoking and often about a specific story or truth in the Bible.

But yeah, our house can be loud at times. As for your DH’s comment and the struggle at that hour, I can totally relate. I swear they can all be seated on couches and the floor reading quietly and I’ll look at the clock and think “oh, good, DH will be home soon and look how sweet they are!” and before he gets home, something happens and things just go awry fast and DH will someimtes seem exasperated that things are so wild when he walks in. I really do try though and I know you do too! Hang in there!

I’m sorry….I couldn’t hear you….my 4 boys are too loud..and yes, I seriously say that to some of my kids, “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you because it’s too loud in here.”  And I’m not joking or saying that for effect – it is sometimes so loud I literally cannot hear the child speaking to me.

No real practical solutions.  To some degree it gets quieter as they get older.  Well, the type of noise changes.  And they spend longer periods of time being quiet.  I love it when the older boys find books that interest them.  All of the sudden the noise level decreases and I find them holed up in some quiet corner reading….for hours….the bliss….the silence….

We have 6 and while it was a lot louder when the kids were little, I grew up with a mom with chronic headaches who kept a quiet house, and I get migraines regularly, so I seem to have a really low noise tolerance. That said, I have an older child who was both a sensory seeker and very reactive when she was upset, so I can relate. Keeping her blood sugar regular helped some – a snack before dinnertime might help offset that crash just when daddy comes home if your daughter is like mine was. It also helped if there were other activities to give her sensory input so it didn’t all have to be from her own noise, LOL. (The book The Out of Synch Child is great for this).

One thing I grew up with that we’ve really enforced here is “inside voices.” Think the type you’d tolerate in a restaurant – loud enough to hear someone talking next to you, but if I can hear you from the other room, or can’t hear to talk to someone in the same room, you are too loud! Kids will get a reminder, and if the noise level can’t stay down, they’ll have to go outside to use those outside voices. Migraines have also given the kids good practice at spending a few hours being really quiet – reading, talking softly, being still. I don’t love the headaches but appreciate what they’ve fostered! I wonder if the same sort of thing could be done by setting yourself up with a book in the center of the room and telling others it’s time to do something quiet – in different spots, not next to each other! Practice, of sorts? With very little children, you could start with 15 minutes perhaps, in line with CM’s lessons, during which you practice talking quietly, looking at books, etc.

We also used to plan very short errands during which we’d practice one particular skill; perhaps you could make a short trip for something small, but the real focus would be talking quietly. All this said, your kids are little. Start with a few habits that may take a while to build, but know this season will pass.

How about having a daily planned time of outdoor physical activity followed by quiet inside activity time just before daddy comes home? It helps drain some of that energy but also reinforces the inside voice / outside voice difference.