Can you ask a toddler to be quiet?

[Cally]

DD has to be reminded that it's our turn to talk as she is quite a chatterbox. Usually she manages OK. I figure with enough reminding, she will eventually remember!

It is difficult with the excitement with Daddy's coming home. Maybe if they went and sat down for 5-10 minutes and just the two of them caught up on their day, then the point could be made that it was Mummy and Daddy's turn now?

What about spending some time outside being quiet and listening the birds, crickets at dusk, something like that so that you could talk about all the different noises that you can't hear if you're talking?

[MummyNaomi]

My DS is a chatterbox at the moment, and will repeat things over and over and I've recently discovered that if I repeat back to him what he is saying before I answer, he seems to 'get' that I have answered him, probably sounds a bit silly, but it seems to work.
Sometimes he will chatter away when DH and I are mid conversation, and frankly sometimes we just need to stop and acknowledge him and then we tell him its our turn (to talk), sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, at 2.5 he doesn't completely get it yet.
If he is being particularly rowdy, another successful tactic is to talk to him in whispers and he'll mimic - very handy sometimes (eg when waiting in doctors surgery etc).
Best advice I reckon is that sometimes it is more effective just to pause the adult conversation and respond to the toddler, as they are persistent little people and they will outlast us heheheheheheheehe, I figure like everything, they will eventually understand more about waiting till someones finished talking etc

[~Kim~]

TBH yes I do think it's OK to tell them that sometimes it's not OK just to talk until you get a response. I figure that there are times in life when it isn't OK to talk because you want to so it's up to me to teach that. When they're at school they can't just speak when they want to all the time, church, at doctors consults, when you are dealing with another adult/professional etc etc etc. I don't think "shut up" is an acceptable thing to say lol, but I do think that teaching them the acceptable social skills is part of our job.
If we're going to the library for instance I remind them that the library is for talking quietly and that as people are reading and studying they don't need to be distracted by constant noise. It works for the most part.

My DH works away full time so I totally get the over eagerness when they return.
My DD at 5.5 is still struggling with interrupting conversations just to say something random. She talks in her sleep and she's always loud.
When DH comes home she's in his face from the get go and since he doesn't live with us full time he's frustrated instantly. However since reading body language is not a small child's forte, I do think it's OK to say 'sometimes mummy and daddy would like to talk to each other without interruption. You're welcome to have a turn when we're finished what we're saying, but it's very rude just to speak over other people. And when you're speaking your aren't listening'. I do step back for a bit when he does get home and just let them get it out of their systems though.
I have to remind her many times a day that 'just because you say excuse me, it's not OK just to say what you want to say, we have to wait until it's our turn'.

When they speak and I'm distracted/dealing with something that I can't just give them my full attention I say "I heard you, I won't be a minute".