(L) is for Listening. I actually talked a lot about this on day one under (A)ttention, so I am going to take a slightly different tack and mention ‘Mom Ears’.

Since first having children 25 years ago this week, I developed the condition that I call ‘Mom Ears’. I am sure many of you are familiar with this phenomenon! There is a deep unconscious listening that happens once you have children. I can sense the slightest change in the house at night; a sniffle, a door opening, a silent cry, muffled laughter. Every bit of it will wake me up wide eyed and I will sit in bed and listen attentively to make sure everything is okay and that I am not needed anywhere.

A different kind of listening woke me out of a dead sleep last night. Every cell phone in the house pinged with an emergency alarm, a tornado warning at 1:30 am. Then my listening changed, listening to the siren’s howl carrying on the wind, looking at the radar and determining at what point I haul my adult children to the basement. The storm ended up missing us last night, and there is the promise of more severe weather today; I will continue to listen.

Part of the Blogging A-Z 2026 Challenge.