That yelling – that’s mine.

Those belly laughs – they are mine, too.

That unruly cackling – yep, you guessed it — mine as well.

That noise — it’s mine — all mine, and I will never, ever apologize for it.

That noise comes from my three joyful, often messy, surely snotty-nosed children.

Be it inside of our home or when we visit yours.

Out at a grocery store or inside a restaurant.

We mean no disrespect – we just can’t contain our noise. And, why should we?

We shouldn’t – you’re right.

Our noise is a sign of life – a happy life we are carefully curating as a team.

Our noise is a sign of learning – my children and my husband and I — all learning from and about each other and ourselves.

Our noise is a sign of courage – and my goodness, I surely hope and pray my children will always have the courage to ensure their noise and their voice is heard on any damn topic they feel passionate about.

You see to outsiders, our noise is disruptive and is often perceived as bordering on disrespectful.

Let me assure you of this:

There is absolutely nothing disrespectful about love. And love, well, that’s all you’re hearing. You are hearing me love my kids. You are hearing my kids love each other. You are hearing them love their environment. You are hearing me teach them about showing love to strangers.

You are hearing noise because children are meant to be heard. All of their noise — their happy noises, their curious noises and their range of noises that express the gamut of emotions they feel daily.

I will never apologize for the noise and, if you have kids, you shouldn’t either.

To those that are bothered by my family’s noise, I say to you this:

Start making some noise of your own and it’ll drown out what you hear from us.

Plus, you’ll be much happier.

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