We all need quiet sometimes

We all need quiet sometimes. ⁣

I wrote this while my 1-year-old was walking around and banging a drum and my 3-year-old was singing Moana music at the top of his lungs on the day after Halloween. ⁣🎼🎤🥁

I did not know how much I need quiet to recharge until after I had kids. Perhaps that was poor timing, but it’s what I got. 🤷‍♀️ My kids can *seem* like they don’t need quiet, but they do. People are never static – we ebb and flow and need both noise and quiet. That balance makes sense to me. The hard part for me is gauging how much noise and how much quiet I need (and my kids need). Unlike, say, sleep where I can just look at a clock and have a sense of how much I’m getting, noise is more amorphous. There is always some amount of sound, and I don’t carry a sound-level meter on my person (dibs on personal sound-level meters as the next trend in wearables!). Sound is not black-and-white, and I can’t rely on external cues to tell me what to do. I have to trust myself and my own experience. Which is…hard. But I’m working on it. ⁣

we all need quiet sometimes

Published by Emily P.G. Erickson

Emily P.G. Erickson is a freelance writer specializing in mental health and parenting. She has written for popular digital publications, including Everyday Health, Health, The New York Times, Parents, Romper, WIRED, and more. Emily is a professional member of the American Society of Journalists and Authors (ASJA) and the Association of Health Care Journalists (AHCJ). Previously, Emily researched PTSD for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and earned a master's in psychology. You can find the latest from Emily at www.emilypgerickson.com.

Leave a Reply

%d bloggers like this: