San Francisco 49ers v Carolina Panthers

I’m Going to Scream!

When I was growing up, I had a friend who’s mom wouldn’t let us scream. It was the foremost rule of their house. You were not allowed to scream inside. You were not allowed to scream outside. The ONLY reason to scream was if there was an emergency.

One time we were playing in their camper and somehow managed to get the door locked on ourselves. My friend and I looked at each other and said, “This is an emergency… we can scream!” And we milked it for all it was worth. We screamed our lungs out, until our throats hurt. But it was the most amazing fun, because we finally had an excuse to scream. When the mom heard us and let us out of the camper, we got praised for screaming at the correct time.

I don’t remember specific anti-screaming rules at my house, so as a kid, I thought my friend’s mom was super strict. I mean, a ban on screaming was highly restrictive to a child’s playtime. The rule was so serious, the kids got time-out’s for screaming, and if you were playing at their house and screamed (whether you were aware of the rule or not) you got a time out too.  What a mean mom!

But. Now I am a mom and I’ve come to realize something. That lady wasn’t a shrew… she was just trying to preserve her sanity!

My son’s favorite pastime is roaring: like a lion, like a dinosaur, like a monster… it doesn’t really matter the animal/creature, as long as he can roar! My daughter loves to respond by screaming in terror. Sometimes this terror is happy terror and sometimes she’s genuinely frightened, but either way it comes out as screams. And if roaring doesn’t work to get his sister to scream, Isaiah resorts to screaming himself and Leah happily chimes in.

They love screaming so much, they use it like commercial breaks between playing. Isaiah plays Thomas Trains and Leah plays Little People Castle for awhile, and when they both get bored, they start screaming. Isaiah plays legos and Leah plays babies, and when they both get bored, they scream. They scream back and forth at each other during the previews on their movies. They scream while they sit at the table waiting for me to serve the food. They scream in the bathtub. They scream outside. They scream, scream, scream!

And I’m losing my sanity! By the end of they day (or sometimes at the beginning) I’m screaming too… screaming at them to stop. Why, oh why, did I not make a NO SCREAMING rule? While was busy judging my friend’s mom, I should have been learning from her example. She was one smart lady!

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