“I just wanted to thank you,” said an unfamiliar voice beside me. Looking left, away from the informational plaque I was reading, I saw an older woman standing next to me. “I was behind you and heard you explaining all of the information to your kids and they were so interested. I heard other kids saying that they were bored and I knew your kids weren’t. I even learned a lot!”

“Uh, thanks!” I responded, very flattered. We were at the Whydah Pirate Museum in Cape Cod, a very good historical museum with a wealth of information and artifacts. I had been guiding my kids through by summarizing the informational plaques and connecting the information to concepts my kids were already familiar with. They seemed to be genuinely interested until the very end when my five-year-old understandably began running out of steam. I was too busy carrying on my patter and keeping my kids entertained that I hadn’t even noticed the woman behind us.

Besides simple surprise, it was refreshing for someone to randomly complement me on sharing “fun facts.” As a kid, my love of them often got me in trouble or at least elicited annoyance. I was the kid who talked too much, who was asking the teacher another question or holding up the group because I was reading something or interrupting the tour guide to volunteer unnecessary information that often they would get to in two minutes. Some of it was just general annoyance with someone caring “too much” or being “too smart.” But sometimes it was that I genuinely was crowding other people out and not giving them time and space to speak. When that one girl keeps getting called on, why bother raising your hand after a while?

So when my kids also started showing a love of “fun facts,” I realized that I may need to give them a bit of guidance on finding that balance. After all, my older son had already won the “Fun Fact Award” in first grade. I always want my kids to love learning and to share what they’ve learned with others. I just don’t want it to be at the expense of other people being able to learn and participate.

So now we’re working on when it’s appropriate to share information or not. When my younger son went to raise his hand during a presentation by a naturalist this summer, I whispered to him, “Is this a question or a fun fact?” When he answered that it was a fun fact, I asked him to wait until afterwards to share it with the ranger. As it turned out, the ranger was charmed to find out my five year old has a 10 foot stuffed rattlesnake at home.

We’ve also been talking about how to ask other people about what they’re passionate about, not just talking about our own interests. After all, plenty of people have fun facts about what they love too.

As we went through the rest of our Cape Cod vacation, I started wondering if my kids actually enjoyed my patter or were starting to get sick of it as well. (They’re usually more than willing to tell me when they’re bored, but who knows?) That was until we got to an information plaque at the Chatham Fish Pier. My older son asked, “What’s it say?” I looked at him with an eyebrow raised and said, “You don’t need me to read it – you know how to read.” He replied, “Yeah, but you make it interesting.”

Be still, my fun fact loving heart.

(This was originally posted on Facebook in August 2021.)