Talk to Me

My children haven’t developed language skills like I expected. I knew they’d learn short words first, progress to longer words and phrases, and finally culminating with sentences carefully crafted to annoy me like “But everyone else is going” and “Can I have the keys to the car?” I figured the button-pushing phrases wouldn’t appear until the teen years, but I thought I’d be able to hold a conversation with my children by now.

I’m still waiting on the conversation skills. The kids don’t answer questions well, and most of their longer phrases are copied straight from elsewhere. If I ask them how to stop Swiper, they know the answer is “Swiper no swiping!” If I ask them where they left their pants when they disrobed, they answer with blank stares.

Ian was copying a routine from Diego tonight. “I’m Ian,” he said substituting his name for Diego’s. “What’s your name?” He repeated this a few times before I caught onto it and answered.

“I’m daddy, what’s your name?” I asked to continue the conversation.

“I’m Abbie,” she said picking up on it. “What’s your name?”

“I’m brother,” said Tory. We’ll keep working on his conversation skills.