When the grandchildren come to play, it’s actually quite peaceful!

Our house was once filled with giggles, cries and shouts – sometimes of tears and sometimes of laughter.

These days it’s filled with beeps and pings.

Apart from the noise the washing machine, dryer, dishwasher and microwave make when they’re doing their job, these machines and others communicate in a variety of mechanical noises.

The washing machine gives three imperious beeps when its job is done. The dryer just lapses into blessed silence. The microwave gives one long beep and then if you don’t attend to its demands beeps again… and again.

The fridge hums along as a sotto voce to all this activity. The dishwasher announces its job is done with one long loud beep.

The toaster’s springs boing and sometimes there is a clatter if the toast is too vigorously expelled and hits the nearby teapot. I really should buy a whistling kettle.

The computer announces it’s turned on and off with a grand flourish. The iPad pings when an email arrives, and swooshes when I send one. The iPhone buzzes when an email arrives and burrs when a text message arrives. For five cents it buzzes when a text message is delivered.

And then there is the telephone which rings in three different places. Two handsets and the old wall socket no longer in use now we’re on the NBN, but which still rings.

But my very favourite, which isn’t often in use, is the yoghurt maker which trills a few bars of ‘Fur Elise’ when the yoghurt’s done.

Really, when the grandchildren come to play, it’s comparatively peaceful…

What noises do you have in your house? Do you think your house is really quieter without the grandchildren?