Do You Listen to Your Children?
When you can pay close attention to your listening behaviour with children, you might discover that you engage in different listening habits with them than you do with adults.
You may offer to children more or less listening time, or focused attention than you do to adults, even though you try hard at being a good parent.
Having compassion You may feel surprised, even shocked or distressed as your own poor listening patterns with your children become clearer to you.
In workshops and training programmes, I have observed that participants often feel stunned and embarrassed when they realise that some of their own behaviour has contributed greatly to past difficulties in their communications with members of their family.
It is vital to have compassion for yourself and remember that you do not know what you do not know.
You will have learned most of your listening habits from the people who have listened to you.
How else will you have learned your patterns of behaviour? If those people did not have good listening skills, then how could you? We learn through listening to others We learn our culture largely through listening; this is how we learn to think and speak, how to love and about ourselves.
If we are fortunate, we may have benefited from having good listeners in our lives and we may have picked up good habits from them.
On the other hand, if those who had influence over our young lives had little understanding about listening, it is unlikely that we will have developed into having good skills in these areas.
We need to have compassion for those people too as they were just doing what they just thought was best.
Learning Listening Skills If you're reading this article perhaps you are thinking that your skills in this area of communication may need developing.
I strongly believe that the way we Listen to Children has huge consequences in our relationships with them, their happiness and self esteem, and even to their future success in life.
To learn more about how to develop your listening skills with children visit Listening to Children.
You may offer to children more or less listening time, or focused attention than you do to adults, even though you try hard at being a good parent.
Having compassion You may feel surprised, even shocked or distressed as your own poor listening patterns with your children become clearer to you.
In workshops and training programmes, I have observed that participants often feel stunned and embarrassed when they realise that some of their own behaviour has contributed greatly to past difficulties in their communications with members of their family.
It is vital to have compassion for yourself and remember that you do not know what you do not know.
You will have learned most of your listening habits from the people who have listened to you.
How else will you have learned your patterns of behaviour? If those people did not have good listening skills, then how could you? We learn through listening to others We learn our culture largely through listening; this is how we learn to think and speak, how to love and about ourselves.
If we are fortunate, we may have benefited from having good listeners in our lives and we may have picked up good habits from them.
On the other hand, if those who had influence over our young lives had little understanding about listening, it is unlikely that we will have developed into having good skills in these areas.
We need to have compassion for those people too as they were just doing what they just thought was best.
Learning Listening Skills If you're reading this article perhaps you are thinking that your skills in this area of communication may need developing.
I strongly believe that the way we Listen to Children has huge consequences in our relationships with them, their happiness and self esteem, and even to their future success in life.
To learn more about how to develop your listening skills with children visit Listening to Children.
Source...