Repeat After Me

Are you living your life in an echo chamber?

I grew up in the age of Walkmans, Discmans, and stereo surround sound. You know, with the headphones that had the flimsy wire that traversed over the top of your head. Admit it — we looked cool. I’ve been coming to reminisce on this time lately and decided it’s a shame my son will never experience the frustration of a skipping CD or the magnetic tape of a cassette getting wrapped around one of those little pegs and ruining your favorite music.

Part of what inspired this recall is that as a father, I am getting a fresh reminder of what it’s like to hear everything in stereo. But unfortunately, it’s not because of a new sound system.

My son has recently turned our home, car, and lives into an echo chamber. Like the namesake of this very site, his babbling and word repetition has us feeling a little High Fidelity.

One day we were out for a casual stroll around the neighborhood when a garbage truck came roaring around the corner. Knowing my son’s extreme enjoyment of big trucks I gleefully shouted “oh, boy!” as the the truck came lumbering closer. Without skipping a beat and with his eyes laser locked on the impending loud machine of joy, he exclaimed back to me “oh, boy!”

Now it wasn’t the most clear pronunciation, but there was no missing the distinct words I had just uttered spilling out of his mouth. I was a bit surprised he was so quick to echo me without any prompt at all.

You're totally going to want to read the rest of this article on Babble. When you're finished, leave us a comment and share what slipped out of your mouth in front of your kids recently.