I live a very sedate life.

Alone for years with just my dog and rarely a visitor or knock at the door, I enjoy the quiet.

But here on my visit with Florida family and on every Sunday back home in Vegas, I get to taste crazy.

Something both of my daughters’ families have fostered is freedom and encouragement for my grandkids to live loud with life itself as their amplifier.

To enjoy childhood as the once in a lifetime experience it is, they fill their homes with noises of experience that make home a safe place for unencumbered self expression.

And this quiet old man loves it!

Learning and creativity flourishes in noisy play and with parents who know its enduring value.

Kids grow prouder, more capable, more confident, and expressive when they have households that allow them hang loose and just be kids.

I’ll soon go back home to my quiet and my dog and my docile way of life. And while I enjoy the quiet, the most memorable family moments I take home are almost always the loud ones I recall and recollect with smiles and chuckles amid my otherwise peaceful existence.

Thanks for all these wonderful memories, kids. And cheers to all the other parents patient enough to wait for their own quiet once again.