Selective Hearing

I did some action research the other day. Really quite profound and worthy of some government funds to support and I'm happy to share my initial findings and let some prospective PhD student  use this for her thesis. (I'm quite confident it would only be done by a female researcher.)

Anyone who has a relationship with a male, be it father, husband, brother, son, friend knows that men can have selective hearing. Case in point. My husband and I can be in the same room or even right smack next to each other in the car and I will say something and the response is -

Silence.

Now don't go thinking there is background noise, like traffic or music or television.

Nothing.

Silence.

I will often ask if he heard me.

Yes.

Then just exactly who did he think I was talking to? Myself?

And at this point there is some mumbled response, but never the truth: I was ignoring you.

On to my research.

I was at the park with my three year old granddaughter and she sees a little boy from her preschool and asks to go play with him. She does most of the talking and he looks mildly interested, but not overly enthusiastic when she points out her baby doll and younger sister. Later he runs off to play on some equipment and she follows.

Once the game of chase has ended she returns to swing with her sister and he gets on his bike with training wheels to race back and forth beside us, about twenty feet away at maximum.

While Aven is swinging and Liam is riding she calls out his name.

Not once, not twice, but about twenty times. All she really wants is for him to look her way.

But no. Liam never turns his head. Helmet on, head down, he has a task to ride like the wind for about ten feet, turn around and repeat.

I know he heard her.

I know he selectively chose  to conclude that his task was more important than acknowledging her.

He is three.

Selective hearing is observable at three.

It may even start in utero.

This is going to take more research.