Economy of Words: Parenting & Communication

Being a parent completely changes your outlook on life, the way you live, the way you think, and the way you communicate. I don’t ever think anyone sits down and really thinks about what being a parent means or how it affects us as individuals and how the children are affected as individuals. We are not thinking about ourselves any longer, we are thinking about our children. I don’t know about you but it is hard for me to find the time to communicate with anyone else besides my 3 year old (laughs.) The point is, as parents, we have to change the way we communicate our feelings, needs, expectations, and emotions, based on how our children will receive those words and understand them. For instance, what would take five works to explain, takes more than ten. If I were to tell my three year old that he is being disruptive, “You are being disruptive.” He would just look at me with this glazed over look and say, “Okay.” Then he would proceed with his actions. However, since I need to change my communication style in order to be effective, I need to say something like this, “When you bang that toy on the ground repeatedly, it makes a really loud noise and then no one else can hear what the other people are saying and we are trying to talk to each other.” The economy of words definitely needs to be worked on, which is an everyday lesson that we teach our children.