Communicating with our children can be tricky at times, especially with the hectic way of life these days. For parenting to be successful, good listening and communications skills are crucial. You should value your child's feelings, views, and opinions. In addition, you should ensure you take the time to sit down, listen, and have open and honest discussions with them.
Giving your child your full and undivided attention is very important. Switch off from other activities so you can fully hear them out. Make sure eye contact is made with your child. Remain calm, ask questions, and at the end, offer potential solutions to the problem.
Allow your child to be upset, angry, or frustrated. Do not discourage this, even though our natural instinct may dictate otherwise. Listening is crucial and is the key.
We can show our children that we care, by making sure we don’t just grant them an audience and listen – we need to let them know that we also go through such experiences and we appreciate them sharing theirs with us. The key is to respond - not react.
