As a mom, I found I have to deal with situations that I never had to deal with before I had kids. Here is a word I came up with for describing what my phone conversations are now often like.
The Momversation
What is a momversation you ask? It’s when I call someone on the phone and I have to stop talking to her/him in the middle of the conversation to talk to my kids. It is basically talking on the phone and talking to your kids at the same time. I usually only have a momversation with good friends along for the ride.
The Cause of Momversating
- My child(ren) interrupt me while I am talking on the phone. For some reason, picking up the phone and talking has the magical ability to cause my children to urgently need my attention. And the more interesting or important the conversation, it often seems their need to speak to me proportionately grows higher too.
Ex.) Child is pulling on my shirt. Child is tapping me on the shoulder. Child is sniffling. Child is whining. Child is crying. Child is screaming. Child is going to step two for attention-getting.
2. My child(ren) is/are doing something that I have tell them to stop doing/start doing
Ex.) Stop jumping up and down on the couch. Stop hitting each other. Stop making toilet paper mountains in the toilet. Start doing your homework. Start enjoying private time in your own rooms…separately. Start cleaning up that mess. What? You are only two and I can’t realistically expect you to clean up such a horrendous toilet-plugging disaster? Sigh.
Momversations Happen
Then mid-conversation I have to stop, due to any of the above circumstances. I quickly talk to my kids while my friend is waiting on the phone and listening along as I speak with my kids. When I return back to the adult conversation, I say thank you for waiting and hope you’ve enjoyed this momversation. Sometimes the situation is so bad that I have to hang up and call back later – when the kids are asleep. Also, sometimes I call my friends out when they are momversating me too much. If they keep having to talk to their kids – I kindly say, “Hey, you are momversating me a lot. Do you need to go?”
The silver-lining to momversating is that if I really need to get my kid’s attention for something important – I just need to pick up the phone and start talking. 🙂
