When Spud and Squirt play together, the noise they make could easily wake up the dead. They’d squeal, they’d scream, they’d have loud giggly laughs and they’d chatter at the top of their voices as they try to talk over each other with every single decibel of noise they could project. They’ll push, they’ll pull and they play rough as they both squeal in their loudest high-pitched voices.

They talk waaaaay too much too, non-stop.

If you can imagine the level of noise kids can make, especially if they do that at the back of the car while driving, you’d understand the distraction and potential mayhem such noise can cause.

As a parent, you’d want to exercise self-control and not scream at your little terrors, because, after all, they are having fun! Besides, screaming your heads off at them after repeating yourself a hundred times to get them to tone it by a few notches would work for only 0.38 seconds before they are at it again.

So what’s a helpless parent, wanting a little bit of peace and quiet suppose to do, right!

This is where the 5 minutes no-talking game comes handy – after I was almost brought down to my knees from exhaustion when trying to deal with them and the terrible noises in my ears. Make it 10 if you wish so. Bloody hell! Make it an hour if the kids can last that long! This is how it works:

• The moment they start behaving like they have escaped from the asylum, you tell them in a gentle and playful tone that you are going to play a game with them
• Tell them that there would be no talking for 5 minutes
•  The first one to utter even a word, lose
• Start at 1-2-3-Go.

Simple, enough right? The first time I suggested we played the game, we were in the car and it lasted for 15 minutes! That was 10 minutes more than the 5 minutes I thought I had in mind. I even forgot we were playing the game, until my daughter, in a whisper, said  “Mama, is 5 minutes up yet?!”

Oh boy! I had to laugh. I hadn’t bother to keep track of time, mainly because the silence was such a bliss.  Not that I intended too, anyway. Shhh…don’t tell anyone!

So I told Spud we had 3 more minutes for the heck of it, and that stretched for another 5 minutes before Squirt remarked rather nonchalantly that he needed to drink some water. Damn! I was loving the silence. If only you could see the sniggering smiles on my face!

But that was that. Squirt “lost” and Spud was too happy that she won. In fact, she suggested that game several times over. See! Silence is golden I told them and, it was fun to play. Best “time-out” ever and one game I would willingly obliged, anytime, anywhere ! 😀

Works with kids who understand the meaning of being quiet; at least for a while before they catch on.