Does anyone else find it difficult to pay attention to what their kids are saying?

[Fairyjuice]

Sahm to 2 preschoolers and a toddler, and along with all the cooking/cleaning/shopping drudgery, I go to college part time so have a stupidly large mental load. Because of this, my attention span is fairly shit. However, it is even worse when it comes to my kids. I constantly find myself zoning out and going into my 'stuff to do' list in my mind while they are talking.

This isn't helped by the fact that my eldest DC talks NON FUCKING STOP and asks a bazillion questions an hour (mostly questions I have already answered 100/1000/10000 times already). He can also speak in a very whiney tone (we are working on this), and I actually think that my brain has tuned the frequency out as I regularly don't even hear him when he starts to talk.

I get huge mum guilts for not listening to my kids, and I am aware of it when it is happening, but don't know how to stop it. I know the problem is my mental load, and I do try and practise a 10 minute mindfulness meditation daily, but it doesn't seem to help.

Which would you rather be: a butterfly who everyone hates, or a tiger who everyone loves?

Today's gem. He's asked me about 17 times already.

When DS was 3 or 4 I came to realise that the repetition of the word "why" actually just meant "talk to me mum".
It's a little less frustrating if you just chat back about whatever is interesting them rather than trying to answer an impossible question.

Which would you rather be: a butterfly who everyone hates, or a tiger who everyone loves?

Tiger, of course! See, if be happy with that, because it's not about poo. Again.

Oh thank god its not just me. My almost four year old never stops with questions about time.

"Mummy, what are we doing today?"
"What are we doing tomorrow?"
"Next Tuesday?"
"What about on the third of June, 2054?"

Repeat all day long in a whiney Brummie accent. No amount of saying "I've already told you that" makes one iota of difference.

It sounds like you need some counselling.

"Listen earnestly to anything your children want to tell you, no matter what. If you don't listen eagerly to the little stuff when they are little, they won't tell you the big stuff when they are big, because to them all of it has always been big stuff."

*Anerak
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If you've never had an incessant talker, you don't understand what it's like. We're not talking 'chatty', we're talking a child who literally does not pause for breath in a 45 minute car journey.

It's incredibly, incredibly emotionally draining to never get a moment's peace.

"Where that bus going, Mummy?"
"Where that bus come from?"
"I think it come from the bus station."
"Mummy, what X doing now?"
"Mummy, who bought me this toy? When? What day? Was it before or after Christmas? Was it before or after my birthday? When is my next birthday?"
"Mummy, what you doing? You driving the car - when can I drive the car? When will I be a bigger boy? When will I grow up? But when? Will it be before or after my birthday? Will it be before or after Christmas?"
"What X doing now, Mummy?"

We were in the car for 45 minutes each way today, and the return journey was fuelled by Haribo. Maybe I should just stop driving?