Any single mums struggling with relentless talking

[Melonsandberriew]

Single mum of 7 and 5 year old.

Two happy enthusiastic beautifully behaved children. They are a joy. Sleep well, down at 7pm, eat well, lovely manners.

BUT I seriously and profoundly struggle with the incessant f$*%ing (sorry) talking. At me.

“Mummy, look at this, Mummy what’s this, Mummy how do you do this, Mummy, what do you think of this, Mummy look at me, Mummy look at that. Mummy Mummy Mummy”.

Honestly it drives me potty. I find myself nodding and hardly listening and just going “mmm, mmm, mmm”

I feel guilty though. I just can not engage with them to the extent that they want me to, which is very very intensely. It actually gets me quite down. I have to actually beg them sometimes to stop talking to me, which lasts for all of five seconds.

Does anyone feel the same?

Am also a single parent with unreliable ex, who often cancels contact etc. So they want extra attention.
Only 3 more weeks to go

Dh works away a lot so I am a single parent most of the week

Its the guilt thats a killer. I totally sympathise.

Im a SAHM and my husband works 13hr shifts so its relentless with my toddler. I get him up, im with him all day then I put him to bed and its constant chatter, even if hes watching something on tv he will be telling me about it whilst its happening. Hes only 3 and hes so cute and lovely and its really sweet that he wants to tell me about things.... but also im so tired as I have a newborn as well, and all I hear all day long is kids talking about kid things, all night a newborn crying, and I just want to sit in the dark in silence. I just want to sit in the woods alone with only birdsong.
I feel so guilty for hating his cute little chatter. Because I know one day he wont really want to tell me anything, or he will not want my company at all. I feel like I should be cherishing every moment but actually I just want to get on a plane to the Arctic Circle and hide out there in silence and darkness, alone until the chatter and the crying ends....

Im looking forward to him starting nursery soon where people are paid to be interested in what he says and there will be lots of children and adults he can chatter endlessly to that will have energy for him.

I do feel like im letting him down.... Mr Tumble is a better mum than I am right now for engaging with him.... im so so tired

I'm not a single mum with one 7yo ds and yes sometimes the non-stop bombardment drives me to the point where I could scream, so god only knows how you're managing!!

Not a single mum but have three boys with high functioning autism and one with adhd and I’m ready to run off to a convent that makes you take a vow of silence.

One of them has just offered to tell me the entire plot of a Sherlock Holmes book (his new special interest) and when I said no Thankyou he said “well I want to, so I will continue. Now Dr Watson said that...”

Fuck my life.

Not single, still married as neither of us can leave because neither of us will take the kids.

Oh thank god for this thread, thank you OP, nice to know I'm not the only one who feels like this sometimes.

I only have one 7yo DD and when she's in non-stop talk mode, I'm screaming in my head "LEAVE ME ALONE, STOP ANNOYING ME" and then the guilt comes and I feel like shit.

I find the best way to deal with it is, when she's nice n calm, I give her all my attention, play a game or sit and chat for half an hour - whatever she wants to do...then when I have bad thoughts I just think of all the time I do give to her.

I’m not a lone parent, but I have a 13 year old who is into history and talks about the Romans, Mayans and Babylonians constantly, so it doesn’t actually stop even as they get older the monosyllabic teen stage is something I can only dream about 😂

(I don’t mind really)

I find it even harder because the autistic ones don't sleep. For the past three nights I've had around 4 hours at night. Last night the two eldest autistic teenagers were arguing at 3am and woke up the youngest autistic ds. Then they woke me st 7am and fell asleep at midday. Great. I've been awake since 7.
My head is booming.
I do have a bottle of Tesco's finest vodka.

God yes. A newly single mum. A toddler. It's relentless. The non stop talking! I also work with children, it's never ending.

Yep.
I wouldn't mind if they actually acknowledged me when I asked them something. But instead I am either constantly talked at or ignored. It's very isolating. they keep catching me talking to myself

I'm not a single parent but this drives me insane too. My DD is only 4 but isn't is relentless "Mummy what is this? Mummy can I have... Mummy why is this? Mummy, Mummy Mummy...." I know I should applaud her inquisitive nature at her age but boy it drives me potty sometimes.

I remember my stepmum who looked after dd1 once or twice a week when I was working shamefacefully admitting that she sometimes locked herself in the bathroom for 5 minutes peace, I just laughed and told her not too worry because I did myself sonetimes when my brain felt like it was about too explode! When they were older sometimes locked myself outside in the garden with a coffee for a break.

They're 12 and 16 now, dd1 who has asd still sometimes talks at me continuously but the main problem now is the bickering and winding each other up( sometimes friendly, sometimes not)

My dd is a quiet soul who can amuse herself for hours with her dolls, Lego, drawing etc.

My ds however buzzes round me constantly..asking me questions like "who do you think would win in a fight? A gorilla or a bear?" Whatever answer I say, I need a reason to justify it and whatever answer I say, will be wrong! It's quite exhausting!

He's ten by the way so not a toddler!

Sleeping lions? The one who stays quiet and motionless the longest wins a prize

Oh yes......
DD1 is like this. I remember being in the supermarket with her - at some point I looked at her and begged her to 'just stop bloody wittering, for at least 5 minutes!!
No ASD or ADHD, just constant verbal diarrhoea.
She's still the same now - particularly if she's been working alone or at home and we meet up. I think that ALL of the words that she hasn't spoken while she's been on her own have to come out in one long stream....... she's 29 now....
Fortunately it's her husband that has to bear the brunt of it, I only get it occasionally.

And it makes me laugh now that I don't have to live with it :D

Thank you all so much!

I’m not alone - that is a cause for celebration in itself!

I do feel so guilty. I’ve just put them to bed, lots of “I love you Mummy” “the best bit about today was...” “wasn’t it great when...”

It’s all so exuberant and positive but in my head I was thinking “shut the hell up, i have a g&t waiting for me downstairs and I just want peace”.

Thank you, I don’t feel quite so alone

Oh god yes. Single mum with 8 year old DD and she doesn't stop talking from when her eyes open to when she goes asleep. She doesnt pause for breath

Oh OP, I do feel for you so much, this drives me potty. I sometimes think about all that advice we were given when they were little: “talk to them all the time to improve their language!” Did it make them think that a constant monologue is normal? We’ve gone from me wittering constantly as I pushed the pram (“Ooh look! A bus! What colour is the bus? Can you see a lady on the bus? And there’s a tree! What colour is the tree? Does it have leaves??”) to them wittering all the time about everything. It’s exhausting.

Recently I needed to have a shower...my dc are 10 and 7 so you'd think this would be fairly straightforward. I told them to only interrupt me if it was an emergency. Ok mummy they said. Only a couple of minutes into my shower and my son is furiously banging on the bathroom door..I call out 'is it urgent?' Son says it is, so I get out of shower dripping wet, shampoo in hair, wrap towel round myself, and leave bathroom...ask my son what's happened 'oh nothing mum' and proceeds to tell me some facts he's read about a footballer...that was what he considered urgent enough to interrupt my shower! Argh!!!

Yes yes yes yes DD is at her dads this evening and I am sitting in silence. It is heaven

Have two dc, mostly with chatty dd (9yrs), I do have to say to her sometimes, "can you just stop talking a minute because I can't think". Its not even when I'm doing something that requires much concentration, it could just be packing the bags at the supermarket or using a cash machine, I struggle to do simple tasks when I have this constant stream of incessant chatter in one ear. I do try to be polite, don't want to put her off sharing everything that's in her brain all the time!

Not a lone parent but end up on my own with DD more often than not. She is 11 and she just doesn't have an off switch.

Mummy look at me. Look at me. Mummy watch me do this. Mummy I'm hungry. Mummy do you want to hear a joke? Mummy. Mummy. You aren't looking at me Mummy.

In the car she witters on and on and on about Minecraft until I end up saying "Please will you just stop talking, just for a minute. I can't hear you and the sat nav, and I just can't concentrate. Please stop talking. Now! Stop! Be quiet! Right, now you've made me miss my turning so I'll have to turn round. OK, now we are lost." Then I turn off the radio and magically she stops talking. But not for long.

Sadly she has dyslexia, so she won't read to herself, and ADHD so she won't sleep. I have at least 16 hours a day of being talked at, unless I get time off for good behaviour am at work.

@InDubiousBattle your post was a perfect, hilarious description of my life. We could be sharing the same DC.

The only time I get peace and quiet is when driving. I have insisted on a rule of no talking in the car. It's amazing. I switch on the radio and instant quiet. I feed them chocolate and sweets in the car