Parenting Tips On How To Talk To Your Children

Posted on April 8, 2014 by About The Children LLC — 4 Comments

Speak Like A Child

Children are able to understand a lot of things, more than adults give them credit for. As a parent, it’s important to emphasize certain things in your relationship with your kids and help them develop into healthy, intelligent adults capable of abstract thought and compassion for others. A lot of people, in our culture, want to put children into a metaphorical box. Basically what I mean by this is that people have this idea that children don’t grasp concepts that adults readily accept or understand in our everyday lives; it’s the “kid’s menu” of life. The point is that we have this idea that things need to be dumbed down for kids. They do to some extent but the reality of the situation is that you just need to explain things in a different way, while still exploring the same concept. You can’t get around the fact that their brains are still developing and they are not yet fully grown adults. There are certain issues that adults typically will avoid with children or make up stories to explain the concept of what they’re talking about through euphemisms or stories. While this can be helpful, it can also be confusing and needs to be approached in the right way.

Encouraging Critical Thinking. One of the most common negative sensations, and indeed one of the most primal, especially in stressful situations, such as a divorce, is the feeling of hopelessness or helplessness. This can be brought on by a lack of information. It’s distressing to not know something that would otherwise aid you in your life. It can also be experienced through a sort of fear induced ignorance from a lack of teaching. Tell them about what’s going on in the world. Encourage a curiosity about things that are outside of their immediate realm of living or understanding. Inducing critical thinking in children at young ages truly increases their brain’s ability to extrapolate information from complex situations. Think about it in terms of survival mechanisms; The more you know, the better your chances of survival are.
Promote Understanding And Compassion. In some places in the world. Kindness can be seen as a weakness. As parents it’s your job to improve the next generation. They’re the ones who are going to be running this world when we’re gone. I don’t know about you but I’d like to be secure in knowing that hate and intolerance would be on the decline. It really comes down to the conscious choices we make every day and the lessons that we teach our children. Kids learn from example. They’re little sponges soaking up every experience that is given to them, good and bad alike. And experience will tell you that sometimes it’s the small things that have the biggest influences on the actions of others. You’d be surprised at how many ripples a small pebble can make in a pond.

Teaching children how to be better people should go hand in hand with teaching them not to touch the stove or lick an electric socket. Let’s face it, the world is becoming more and more progressive at how we see and solve the problems that arise, and this is a good thing. The only way it will continue however, is the pass on the skills that the next generation will need to prosper. It starts at home and is reinforced in school.

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