Three years ago we lived in silence. Peaceful, golden, precious silence. We weren’t nuns who’d taken a vow, we were just two adults living in a house without a child.
Looking back we should have appreciated the quiet times, the hours when the gentle ticking of a clock was the only noise in the room. But how life has changed. No one warns you about the aural assault which comes with having a child, but it’s real and it’s relentlessly annoying!
If it isn’t the V-Tech Toot-Toot Drivers Garage merrily singing grievously annoying tunes, it’s what we’ve dubbed “Sinister Bear” eerily shouting “I’m your friend” several hours after it’s been last touched, the child long in bed.
Most of his favourite toys come with a soundtrack, a relentless, nerve-tinglingly annoying one. In our peace-and-quiet seeking moments we long to throw these toys out; but the boy loves them too much and we love him too much to see him heartbroken over his annoying singing Baby Jake toy which sings no more.
What’s a frugal parent to do? Well, really the only option is to go for recycled batteries. They’re financially a far better option than buying cheap batteries which last for no time at all. I hate throwing the more expensive ones away, and throwing batteries away is environmentally a bit naughty too, so for me it’s recycled batteries all the way. Regardless of what effect the inane chirping of toddler toys does to my sanity.
I’m assured that silence will return when in twenty odd years time he packs up and leaves home. I reckon by then I’ll be used to the din and I’ll miss the creepy mumblings of Sinister Bear.