How much do you talk to your children?
Another photo from Chicago.
Can this possibly be true? I know I'm possibly not typical, since I rarely stop talking* but I'd have been shocked if it had said 38 minutes a day, never mind a week.
Did they only count face-to-face talking with eye contact, maybe? As much as we do all talk, we don't do that as much as we should. But we talk in the morning before school. We talk on the way to school. We talk on the way back. We have family meetings. (We had one last night. Harry 'chaired' and when he asked if anyone had anything else to say, Joe stood up, went up to Harry and said, "Harry Stainton." Not sure he quite understood the brief.) We talk before bed. The thought of only talking with my children for 38 minutes a week, well… it's incomprehensible.
* The other day we went to the supermarket and Harry and Joe were driving me nuts. I wasn't so much talking with or to them as at them, but I was basically keeping up a running commentary of "Don't touch that. I said don't touch it. Put that down. No, we don't need that. Careful, you're in that man's way. Come here. Stand still. Leave that alone. Get out of the way. Hold your brother's hand. NO WE ARE NOT GETTING PICK'N'MIX!" Eventually I had them standing next to me and I said, "Now will you please just shush. Just… nice and quiet. I can't take anymore…" which is when I realised they'd both been nice and quiet almost the entire time, it was my own constant' waffle that was doing my head in. (You worked that out much quicker than I did, right?)
