Earplugs as a stress coping device.

This is borrowed from a friends blog on Facebook and I thougt it was good enough to repost. 

earplugs

Children... and earplugs. A simple solution to a big problem.
No, it's not about ignoring your kids, it's about saving lives. To be more specific, it's about being able to tolerate a crying baby. Why might this be important? Because most people can't, and for some it becomes a volatile situation.

Here's three quick points to think of. One of the leading causes of infant death is from being violently shaken or hit. The second point is that the main reason for shaking a baby, as reported by the person doing it, is that the baby was crying. Finally, listed among the loudest noises on the planet (in no particular order), is a barking dog, a jet engine, and a crying baby. Also, to that list, I would add those canned air horns that fans bring to basketball games (Murphy's law says you're always going to be sitting in front of that guy who likes to use one a lot.)

On a tangent, picture this scenario. You're giving a kitten a bath. Kittens don't meow too much, if at all, and it's not that loud or annoying. This would normally be a semi-pleasant situation that anyone could handle. (It's been de-clawed.)
Now, imagine that every time the kitten starts to squirm or run away, someone blasts an air horn in your ear. It's loud enough to blow every thought in your head out the other side of your mind, and, well, “nerve-racking” would be an understatement. After a while, every time the kitten started to move, you would smack it harder and harder just to get it behave.
Sounds rather horrifying, and you're probably thinking you would never do something like that. Maybe not, but it's more common than you might think. This was an actual result of a psychological experiment. Most people, over 92 percent, will react similarly. Humans are just crazy like that.

When a baby cries a lot, it can be overwhelming. Most loud noises have the same effect. After a while, it can lead to frustration and anger. You eventually stop wondering why the baby is crying in the first place and you just want it to stop, at any cost. This is the point where we all need to stop, take a breath, and try not to do anything stupid, if we have any remaining capacity for logical thought.
This is also where the ear plugs come into play. I shouldn't have to over explain it, but it's obviously a better alternative than putting a pillow over the baby's face, which can turn out to be a very bad idea, at the very least. The point is that when the noise is gone (or greatly reduced, as you can still hear with earplugs in), you can think again. You can get back to trying to figure out why the baby is crying in the first place.

Now that you have your ear plugs in, and you can think clearly, you can solve problems easier. Is the baby teething? Does the baby just have gas or need a diaper change? (That reminds me of my next subject, “Why all baby sitters should carry a gas mask,” but I'll save that for later.) Maybe it's just crying for no good reason at all... Well, now we may be moving away from the subject of babies. Five year old's cry for no good reason at all. So do sixteen year old kids. This is when you just look at them, smile pleasantly, and say, “I couldn't give a damn, I've got earplugs.”

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Find the original link here:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?note_id=417799718751

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