Yesterday I was working in the yard with my white iPod earbuds tucked securely in my ears. My boys were doing the same, which makes effective communication almost impossible. I know wearing headphones while doing yardwork with my sons smacks of lousy parenting – it probably is – but at least we don’t argue this way…
But we do have out share of this…
My son waves frantically at me as I am mowing the lawn.
I look at him, raise my eyebrows, and lift one palm up, gesturing “What?”
He makes a slashing motion across his neck for me to kill the mower.
I stop mowing and reach down to pull the rubber end off the spark plug, because the throttle cable is broken.
I say “What?”
His lips move, I hear nothing.
He points to his ears.
Oh yeah. I take one of my earbuds out.
He repeats what he said. I still hear nothing.
I take out the other ear bud and fumble to push the pause button. Finally I can hear him.
“Dad, can I go in and get a drink?”
(Grr.) “You bet!”
He puts his earbuds back in, and turns to go in the house.
“Hey, bring me one too, please.” I shout after him.
He keeps walking, oblivious.
I grab a tiny rock, and toss it at him. He stops and turns around, confused.
“Brink me one too. please.” I repeat.
He shakes his head and points to his earbuds.
I motion for him to remove one. He does.
“Please bring me one too, please.”
“One what?”
“A drink”
“OK”
“Thanks”
I turn back to the task at hand, put my earbuds back in, hit play, put the rubber cap back on the spark plug, and re-start the mower.
From out of nowhere, my son taps me on the shoulder, scaring me to death. I jump and whirl around.
He laughs at me.
I reach down, kill the mower, pause my iPod and take out my earbuds. Again.
“You scared me!”
“I know – that was funny.”
‘Thanks. What do you want?”
“What do you want to drink?”
“I don’t care. Water is fine.”
“OK.”
One again, I put my earbuds back in, hit play, put the rubber cap back on the spark plug, and re-start the mower.
I look up, and my nine-year-old is waving frantically at me…
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What drives me the MOST nuts is when I see people DRIVING with earbuds in. NO NO NOOOOOO!
I have used ear buds quite a bit lately, but I always feel guilty if I come in the house wearing them.
It drives me crazy when I see teenagers wearing them at social events. Despite being present at activities, they are socially absent when they are plugged in and cut off from everyone else.
When I’m feeling particularly snarly, I’ll put in my earbuds around the house. Tends to stop the kids from complaining to me when I point at my ears and mouth the words “I can’t hear you!” It even works when I don’t actually have any music playing.
Ear buds also kill the chance of throwing quips at your neighbors as they try to tackle their flower beds.
I’m with Cheeseboy. Minus the Def Leopard. My street gets to shake it to J. Lo’s latest. 🙂
One of my daughters is addicted to music and swears she cannot work with out it! Mostly that drives me nuts.
Sandy
I am way too afraid of all of the damage that would occur if I plugged up this way.
This is exactly why I blast the Def Leopard for the entire street to hear.
This is why I cannot listen to music around here-the moment the earbuds go in, everyone needs something 😛