My mother told me this and I think it was her finest lie ever.

As a kid, I learned speaking very soon. By age 1.5 - 2, I was fluent, talking like an adult - expressing my needs, giving my unnecessary opinions, making cringe-worthy remarks etc.

The world and its wonderful complexity was making me curious and now I had the words to speak about it.

Anything that moved or made a sound amused me. And I had questions and comments on them all.
Birds and animals, cars and trains, colors and music, people and their mannerisms. Everything.

I turned into a GIANT TALKING PARROT. Constantly repeating and mimicking everything people said.

My mother had to stop this as people’s ears had gotten sore and I was dancing on their last nerve.

So one afternoon, she sat the 2 year old me down and explained:

Shreya, did I ever tell you, your throat has a small voice box? That’s where all the voice is stored for talking. Everyone has limited supply.
The way you’ve been talking these days, at best you’ve only a few days left before you go completely mute!

Eyes wide open, I stared at her in terror. What was she saying! This can’t be true!

But she did not stop, she reeaaallllyyyy wanted to put the horror in perspective. She continued:

How will you ever tell me you’re hungry? What about all the crying for candy and ice cream? Sigh, we will miss all of it.

It worked like magic.

Silence. Oh, the sweet sweet silence!