RM column May 9th - Turn that down

Parts of this you may have read before, sorry about that.

RM Column May 9th - Turn that down

Saying teenagers make a lot of noise is nothing new but I have to say the Young Wan has been taking things to new decibel levels lately between her mobile phone, her new ipod and of course the auld stalwart, her music system in the bedroom.

I am being driven nuts. I am actually boring myself saying ‘turn that down’, well actually it gets to the point where I end up roaring ‘TURN THAT DOWNNNN’.

Like most teenagers her mobile phone has become an extension of her hand and she seems to be constantly texting with the very irritating and constant noise of her hitting the number pad.
The straw that broke the camel's back recently was the all-evening click, click, click, click, click, click of her two-handed teenage texting and it began to grind on my nerves. Between the clicking and the tinny sound of her ipod I told her to 'gowan away and play in your room and give my head a bit of peace'.

I have to say that I didn’t think I would ever be saying that to her again, I thought that had passed around the time she stopped playing with dolls.

When she is at home there is a steady noise level in the house normally going on in all four corners, not to mention the obvious drain on the national grid and my wallet. You can bet the music will be left on in her room, the tv is probably tuned to a music channel, the radio will be on in the kitchen, meanwhile she’ll be listening to the ipod and texting.

She appears to be incapable of doing dishes without loud music, loud enough to drown out the telly.

You find yourself saying that she must be nearly done just leave her to it, but like a slow and steady irritation all of a sudden it creeps up on you and you break before yelling about loud music and how it can be heard all over the street.

She will turn it down then leave it a couple of minutes before slowly and surely turning up the volume slowly. This is another one of those occasions where you wonder if your offspring think you stupid and incapable of realising what they are at. Then the yelling ‘turn that music DOWN’ starts again and so the cycle starts afresh.

That has been bad enough but I recently bought her a new ipod and unlike the other one she had I have not been able to turn the volume down on it.

Ipods allow you to set a higher level for the volume on your computer, this means you can set how loud the ipod can be played at which is great in terms of trying to protect hearing from damage.

On another and more selfish level I want to turn down the volume because the level she has it at sometimes can be heard from another room with two doors closed and the television on; still somehow the tinny noise of the player is audible.

It’s funny though because I will give out yards about the noise yet when she isn’t at home you miss it. But don’t tell her I said that.