Do you let your child interrupt your conversations?
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Anonymous
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I have a neighbor I cannot have a conversation with because her 4-year-old daughter continually interrupts and the neighbor indulges it. For instance, the grown-ups will be talking and the 4-year-old will walk up and start showing their mom something (like a rock) and mom stops the conversation to discuss the rock. Or the 4-year-old will ask me a totally unrelated question (have you ever held a frog?) and the mom stops and waits for me to answer/converse with the child. This happens every time we try to speak and I find it extremely frustrating as it entirely derails our conversation. I raised two kids and always told them to wait until grownups were done talking, unless it was an emergency like someone was hurt.
Do you let your child interrupt adult conversation? How do you redirect them? Any advice for me when it happens with someone else's kid? |
Anonymous
| Yes if my kid is in distress they know they can interrupt. Otherwise they wait for a break in conversation |
Anonymous
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Of course not. We have a signal with our kids - they touch our knee if they want to interrupt. We touch their arm back to acknowledge we know they want to say something and we'll give them attention soon.
With someone else's kid we say "Just a minute, let me finish what I was saying and then we can talk about frogs." |
Anonymous
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I’ve taught the touching elbow thing.
Most of the time they feel so strongly that their question is SO important. They interior anyway. Most of the time I just let them. Rather get it out of the way so we can continue talking. Rather that, than they stand by me wiggling and interrupting for 5 minutes. |
Anonymous
| Interfere^ |
Anonymous
| No. We have taught them to wait for their turn. It doesn’t work perfectly all the time but they will mostly ask “excuse me” if they can’t contain themselves. |
Anonymous
Agree with this. I have a friend who always diverts to talk with her kids mid-sentence and it is so rude and annoying. |
Anonymous
| Is this question about interrupting mid-sentence or more generally interrupting while grownups are having a conversation, even when it’s not mid-sentence? |
Anonymous
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No, I don't, but I also haven't found a solution that actually works. Advice from more seasoned moms / teachers welcome!
I've tried the "hold the arm" thing and it worked when DD was around 3, but now she's 4 and acts like the kid OP describes, though I try to ignore her or scold her not to interrupt vs. indulging it |
Anonymous
| I dropped a friend who continually did this. She had ample opportunity to meet up with me without her daughter but brought her everywhere with her and talked with her non stop while I sat there doing nothing. I didn't have kids at the time, but I do now, and I never let them do that. |
Anonymous
My kid is just a toddler but how do parents have ample opportunity to meet up without their kids? |
Anonymous
Other parent, babysitter, grandparents willing to watch the child, gym daycare, preschool, evenings. |
Anonymous
| You're gonna be the big baddie villain trying to teach somebody else's kid manners. How much do you value this mom's companionship? |
Anonymous
| I hate it when parents indulge their child’s interruption for innocuous chatter. It’s so rude and it makes people dislike your child. It is especially horrific to me when I witness an adult sharing something serious and the mom allowing her child to cut it with “look at this rock” and choosing to entertain the child’s gadfly over her friend’s story. |
Anonymous
I fired a family doctor after she made googoo gaga faces at my baby, who I only had with me for childcare reasons, while she was blowing off a medical issue |