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My house is never quiet.
Like, ever.
Between my three kids, the dog, and my husband who somehow manages to stomp even when he’s just standing still, there is always some kind of noise happening.
Someone is singing. Someone is yelling. Someone is making a weird sound just to see how long they can do it before I snap.
So, naturally, the idea of Silent Sundays felt like an impossible dream.
The concept is simple.
For a chunk of time—whether it’s an hour or the whole day—everyone in the house cuts way back on talking.
No TV. No loud music. No narrating our every thought just because we feel the need to fill the space.
The goal isn’t to be completely silent, but to bring the overall volume way, way down.
At first, I was skeptical. My kids? Silent? Ha. But what happened when we actually tried it? Honestly, it changed our whole week.
The First Attempt Was… A Disaster
I won’t lie. Our first Silent Sunday was rough.
My 8-year-old made it exactly three minutes before loudly whispering, “So wait, we can’t talk at all?”
My 5-year-old took the challenge as an opportunity to start miming everything, which was adorable until she started aggressively acting out I NEED A SNACK at me.
My 3-year-old, of course, did not care about any of this and continued to scream “MAMA” like it was his full-time job.
But we kept at it.
Instead of absolute silence, I asked everyone to think about when they really needed to talk and when they could just be. I encouraged whispering or quiet voices.
And, shockingly, after about 20 minutes, the house started to feel… different.
The Magic Started to Happen
Once the kids stopped trying to find loopholes (which, let’s be honest, was a full event in itself), something amazing happened.
1. They actually slowed down.
Instead of rushing to the next loud thing, they got into their activities in a totally different way. My oldest sat and built LEGOs without humming the entire Super Mario theme song on repeat. My 5-year-old drew for almost an hour, completely zoned in.
2. They stopped fighting over every little thing.
No one could yell “MOM, SHE TOOK MY MARKER,” so instead they just… worked it out. They passed things back and forth. They gestured. They figured it out.
3. I felt more peaceful than I had in weeks.
I had actual time to think.
To sit in the quiet and sip coffee while it was still warm. To read a book while my kids played nearby, instead of breaking up arguments about whose imaginary friend was standing in whose imaginary house.
The Lasting Effect on Our Week
The most surprising part? The quiet didn’t just stay on Sundays.
On Monday, the house still felt calmer. The kids seemed to take longer pauses before automatically shouting for me.
Tuesday, I noticed them playing without as much arguing. By midweek, I caught them whispering during breakfast, just because.
Silent Sundays helped us reset. It reminded my kids (and me) that we don’t always have to fill the space. That sometimes, quiet is just as important as conversation.
That slowing down isn’t boring—it’s needed.
Will We Keep Doing It?
Absolutely.
Some weeks, we’ll do an hour. Some weeks, maybe a whole afternoon.
But this experiment showed me something I never expected—my kids can be quiet.
They just need a reason to be. And when they are? It makes everything else during the week feel just a little bit easier.
So if your house is as loud as mine, give it a try. Silent Sundays might just be the reset button your family didn’t even know it needed.
