Tuesday, December 05, 2006

Operation Quiet As a Mouse

In this post, my online friend On Fire For Him shares her challenge of living in an apartment with young children. Did I mention young boys? While those of us with children know this is virtually IMPOSSIBLE, the neighbor below her does not. If you have not already make sure you read her post as it is what prompted the challenge of Operation Quiet as a Mouse.
I thought how would we do in an apartment situation? My husband and I lived in an apartment our first year of marriage, no children. My father-in-law lived in an apartment for many years on the first floor, so the pitter patter of feet were not an issue. We just needed voice control, which was not a big issue. And if it was we simply cut our visit short. So for today and today only we are going to pretend that we live in an apartment. That there are people living below us and we must be quiet and respectful. The challenge was acknowledged with a smiling grin. I announced the challenge and the cat jumped off the refridgerator with a THUMP! This is going to be interesting. The first half hour was their TV time so it was REAL quiet as they watched Little Bear. Then when they got up, they ran down the hallway. And if you read the post, you know this is a BIG NONO. So I asked them to please walk and try to be quiet and respectful. I got a look. Next there was dragging of chairs into another room to make a fort. And it has only JUST begun. I think this is truely going to be a challenge. DS has already proclaimed he does not want to do the challenge anymore, but I think we are going to press ahead and see what the results may be. I am already feeling a whole lot of compassion for On Fire! There is no one below us but I am pretending with every noise a tapping and a tsk tsk. And what about the water in the pipes and the running of the dishwasher? These things are not quiet. Now we are off to the kitchen table to do school, I guess there will be no jumping jacks today...

My name is Sarah and I live in a noisy house, today and today only we are going to try and live....quiet as a mouse.

4 comments:

This Journey of Mine said...

You have completely made my day! I am giggling even now! I am on my way out the door to talk with my landlord and try to give my kids an opportunity to get their sillies out!
I am leaving a goodie and note on my downstairs neighbor door!

Looking forward to seeing how your day goes! You rock!!!!

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I live in a triplex apartment building, as you know. I do have the advantage of living in one of the end apartments, so I only have a neighbor on one side, thank goodness. One advantage of living in apartments for elderly and handicapped, (hubby has cerebral palsy, which is why we are able to live here) is that a lot of the residents have a hearing loss. So they don't hear us much. On the other hand, they make a LOT of noise themselves because they can't tell how loud THEY are, LOL. :-)

We just all try to be understanding and tolerant and it all seems to work out fine.

It will be interesting to hear how your experiment works out. :-)

Anonymous said...

My family would fail this challenge miserably. Hi. My name is Cindy. I have been visiting your website for awhile now. I think I found your site through Mindy's who I went to through her friend (and mine) Chey Granroth. Anyway I am a fellow homeschool mom. I have a 2nd grader and kindergartener and an almost four year old- hence why I would fail the challenge!! I wanted to thank you for the info on the Science website. And I wanted to let you know of two opportunities that you may already know of: Impressions 5 has a homeschool class once a month. It is divided into age groups. There is one this Thursday with the pre-k,k starting at 10:15. You can visit their website for schedules and details. We have not tried this yet but are aiming to do so. Also Edru Skatearama in Holt has a preschool skate every Thursday from 10-11:30. It is for ages 7 and under. We enjoying doing this once in a while. Sorry for such a long comment. I enjoy reading your blog.

Cindy Agnew

Anonymous said...

I just got done reading her post. I can't imagine that, my mouth would have dropped too!

Good luck