A mom with no words?
A wife who can’t talk?
Yep, that’s been me for the past four days. I have laryngitis and a cold.
It’s been a dream come true for James. A wife who doesn’t talk his ear off!
I’ve learned a few things in these past few days of unusual silence.
You can find creative ways around your limitations. I’ve been typing messages and answers to questions on the computer in huge fonts on a word document for my kids to read. It’s a great way to encourage reading! I’ve written on pads of paper at the dinner table which the kids seem to enjoy. We have brought back some sign language that we used to know when the kids were babies…please, thank you, toilet, yes and no. We’re playing charades to say, Go brush your teeth. Is your lunch packed? Wash your face. It’s kind of fun.
It’s nice to get a pass on talking once in a while. Since I’m being quiet, I can fill my mind with thoughts of God. And I must admit, it’s nice to default to dad having to deal with fighting kids because “Don’t ask mommy anything. She can’t talk.” Nice.
Having a voice is really important. Even with the upsides, you realize that the ability to speak is really important. Without a voice, things go left unsaid that I wish I could say. I thought about this at dinner when James was speaking for me and I was on “mute.” I wondered if we wives sometimes step over what our husbands want to contribute about parenting. If we speak for them and unknowingly put them on “mute.” Something to think about.
Cough drop wrappers can be really funny. It was 3 am and I couldn’t stop coughing. I went downstairs to make a cup of hot tea. Afterwards, I opened up the cough drop wrapper which had little messages on it (like the Dove chocolates). The messages were so ridiculous, they made me laugh!
You can do it and you know it.
Go for it.
Put your game face on.
Fire up those engines.
Not exactly a message that matches with a sick person who’s coughing and feeling terrible. I thought those were very funny sayings to put on a cough drop wrapper. Maybe they should have tried:
You’ll feel much better in two days.
Take two tylenol and lay down.
Go back to bed.
