My kids are always interrupting adults and talking over each other

[Anonymous]

For some reason, this has been worse than usual at my house lately. 3 kids ages 8, 5, and 4. The “mama mama mama mama!” is just beyond the pale, along with my 8 year old constantly interrupting my husband and I when we talk with his own opinions and interjections. It’s getting bad. Is this normal? Is it because they are all extroverts and home all the time? My 5 year old literally follows me around while I clean and such saying mama mama mama and when I ask her what she doesn’t know. She just says it makes her feel happy to do it. It makes me insane!!!

How do I discipline this? Have been saying “interrupting!” in the moment after conversations about it but it
Doesn’t seem to help.

Thanks, all.

[Anonymous]

It's absolutely UNACCEPTABLE. I don't care if they are extroverts. "Go to your room and don't come back until you can be around people without interrupting them." That's what I do.

By 5, they knew they were not allowed to interject into a conversation already in play and change the conversation. We agreed on a silent sign to use if one of the kids wanted to talk. I would gently put my hand on their knee to say, "I see you want to say something and we'll get to you in a minute," and then when the person speaking finished their thought we'd respond to it, and then say "DS, you wanted to say something?"

If they wanted to say something and we were not making eye contact they could come over and touch our knee (or elbow if standing).

I would send the 4 yr old out of the room until she can stop repeating mama."I know it makes YOU happy, but it makes ME feel crazy and my feelings count too." I'd probably carve out one or two times each day when she could repeat it over and over and it wouldn't bother me - go skip in a circle around the living room yelling mama for the next two minutes to get it out of your system.

[Anonymous]

Wow, pp I wouldn’t want you anywhere near my kids.

OP, I agree it needs to be addressed but in a much more loving way. Many parenting books address different techniques you can use. The one I liked best was tapping or squeezing my hand while I’m in a conversation for them to let me know they need me for a second. I squeeze back and they wait until I can pause.

[Anonymous]

OP, it's gotten so much worse with my 3 year old during the pandemic. I think the problem is all the time with her dad and I and not enough time with other kids. She will yell at as "I don't want to talk about grownup things anymore!" It is super rude and obviously we don't let it slide. But I do also empathize with her situation -- she does not want to listen to us talk about politics or epidemiology anymore. Fair.

So we try to set aside time at every meal or in the morning or evening where we talk about "kid things". Like a sustained amount of time talking about her toys or her favorite tv show or whatever weird thing she's obsessed with in the moment. I recently started taking her for walks/bike rides 3-4 times a week at lunch time, where I eat my sandwich and just listen to her talk about her stuff, asking questions and answering them as needed. It seems to help. And then later if I'm trying to talk to her dad about "grownup stuff" we can remind her that if she's not interested, she can go play.

It's not perfect and I definitely still get lots of "mamamamamamamamamama" but it does seem to help.