Are you a parent who is good when it comes to listening to your children? Listening to your kids is a skill that not all parents have. It is a difficult and daunting task to master. However, this can be acquired if you just know the techniques on how to communicate with your kids effectively.
Research says that listening to kids makes them also listen to you. When they feel they are being heard by their parents, they are more likely to listen. So if you want your child to understand you, you need to make them feel they’re being understood. Having a great communication between you and your children promotes stronger bonds and relationships as well as enhancing their self-esteem.
Reasons as to Why You Should Listen to Your Child
As a parent, you should be aware of the importance of good communication between you and your child. Listening to them allows you to build a bond and eventually get his trust. In every relationship, a strong bond is essential as this boosts his confidence in whatever he does. Listening to a child is a skill, but not that difficult to do if you are serious about making your child become a better person as he grows. Here are the reasons why it is essential to lend your ears to your child:
1. Strengthens the Parent-Child Relationship
Indeed, the parents are the ones whom a child turns to whenever he needs something. Our children can go to us whenever they want to share ideas, problems, or updates about their lives. Talking and listening to them allow the relationship to become stronger. It fills in the gap and helps us to become closer together.
2. Promotes Open Communication
It is important that as parents we know what is going on in the lives of our children. Spending some time talking and listening to them keep the communication alive and open. Hearing their thoughts also makes us be updated on their happenings so we can also give them advice for them to become the best person that they can be.
3. Makes Them to Listen to You as Well
When you feel understood and appreciated you are more likely to respond with understanding and appreciation too. This is also the same with our kids. When they feel they are being heard and understood, they also listen to us more. Therefore, it is crucial to building this kind of connection between our parents and our children.
4. Lifts Their Self-Esteem
Your child’s self-esteem is built when they know that their parents give them time and attention. This makes them feel they are valued and loved. As a result, they do better to achieve their goals.
5. Helps Them Develop Social Skills.
If you attentively listen to your child, you are also helping him to develop his positive social skills. You are teaching him how to carry a conversation and make him experience how it feels to be heard.
6. Expands its Knowledge.
A child’s imagination is broad; talking and listening to them more often widens that imagination more. Effective communication between parents and their children also enriches their minds and allows the ideas to come into realization.
7. Give Us Insights About Their Emotional Health.
Talking to your child and listening to him provides you insights about his emotional status. Simple gatherings such as eating a meal together can lessen the likelihood of anxiety and depression in young people.
Ways on How to Improve Your Listening Skills as a Parent.
Kids have a lot of things running in their minds. Their priorities are not the same as ours and most of the time they really don’t understand the significance of doing tasks such as sleeping early, taking a bath, tidying up, etc. We, as their parents just want our children to take in what we say.
here are some helpful tips to make them listen:
- Provide your child with encouragement to make him open up to you.
- Be patient and hear what your child is saying, most especially if he’s emotional.
- Be responsive but sensitive to everything he says.
- Watch his body language and actions to have an understanding of what he’s been trying to tell you.
- Be mentally and physically present when listening to your child.
- Be curious and open-minded. Do not be judgmental.
- Do not yell and maintain a calm environment at home.
The Bad Effects of Not Listening to Your Child
The way you behave as a parent affects your child in many ways. Parents shape and influence a child’s personality and future. Kids learn from us from the way we speak and the words we choose. They learn skills from us because they look up to us and we are their first teachers. If they feel they are not being heard, they become less likely to listen. They will lose confidence and won’t believe in what they can do anymore. We all know the importance of self-esteem and confidence in their development. If they are judged and criticized, they also become distant and hesitant to open up about themselves to us.
Though it seems difficult to listen to your child, as parents, we need to do everything we can to hear them out. We shouldn’t do the talking most of the time. We should let them speak and express what they feel so we can properly tell them the right thing to do. Hopefully, the tips above will be able to enlighten the mind of every parent as to why it is vital to spend time listening to our children. It may not be easy but it is all worth it in the end.
Read Also:
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