I used to be a big talker as a kid and teenager. I can tell you every time I got an explicit or implicit message from my mom or another adult that I was talking too much. Every single message has stuck with me.** I’m a lot less talkative now and have a lot less self confidence. I’m totally aware of what has happened, and yet I can’t get over it. And I don’t by any means think I’m alone. This is what the world does to girls.
**when my mom bought me a T-shirt that said “I’m talking and I can’t shut up.”
When I sat in the backseat of the car and counted as I asked her the same thing 10 times and she didn’t respond. When I finally started crying and got through to her, she told me that I talked too much.
When the professor leading my college orientation class posed a question and said, “anyone but Susie [me] please?”
And on and on.
Now that I have kids, I can recognize that I was totally normal. My oldest kid talks a ton. He’s just a happy little soul, and I think I was too. I wish someone could have helped me figure out how to channel it then. Now I just write long posts on DCUM.
