Podcast: Download
Subscribe: Android
Children are thinkers. They’re forever fascinating us with the things they think they see or hear. They wrestle with right and wrong and how to handle situations even when they’re very young.
You serve them well by creating quiet time, when they can collect their thoughts, spend time composing questions and asking you important things. Your responsibility at that time is to give them time to think. Don’t rush them. Open the space between you so they know they have your attention and you are willing to provide your time.
Use your own means of creating quiet time; at bedtime… when you’re in the car…or in a special quiet place that you go with no TV, no smart phone, no video games. If you don’t have such a place, create it.
And if your children are fortunate enough to have grandparents in their lives, use that connection as a time for thinking and planning. The older generation may be in a better position to provide that quiet space that is so daunting to find in the busy lives of parents and their children.
It’s a golden value. Take advantage. Lessons learned at the knee of grandma or grandpa are not passé. They are as important today as they were when John Boy and his family got together. Make it happen.
Photo credit: Michael Petrick of Petrick Studios
Show #495
I love this. And I am fortunate – I am near my 9 y.o. and 7 y.o. grandsons and can see them whenver I wish. It’s true they are involved in some video games, but we also have talk time at the dinner table or talk over cards of Clue or Upwords or Scrabble. We also have early morning conversations…when I am up, at the dining room table and the first up comes down and we chat…before the others are up and the chaos starts. 🙂 I consider all this talk time very important!