Nod the head no more

News for Parents.org recently published this article, Kids Learn More When Mom Is Listening. Basically the article says that kids learn more and learn how to work things out for themselves by talking out issues with mom (it seems to me that dad would work, too, but I didn't go to Vanderbilt's Peabody College). This makes sense. You should listen to your kids. But have you ever really listened to kids? Because mine loves to go on and on in graphic detail whatever it is that she talks about. I do try to listen, but given the chance she'll recap an entire episode of iCarly just so she can explain how she came to know the correct usage of the word "rue." I rue the day that the cable TV powers that be invented children's programming. I love having conversations with my kid. She's funny and smart and at her best, interested. But in our day-to-day world, having to pay attention to all the intricacies of her 7-year-old brain is more tedium than I can stand. Now that's not to say that I refuse to let her talk. Oh she talks, but I participate by throwing down a couple well-timed, "Oh?"s and "Huh"s and the rest of the time I'm skating, letting my mind wander hither and yon. Sometimes Bill and I whisper amongst ourselves while she prattles on about what her Webkinz ate for dinner. And other people listen to her, I'm sure: her classmates, teachers, friends ... why does it all have to fall on the mom to listen intently. Isn't that why we got a dog in the first place?