How much can your young child tell you about YOUR job as a parent?
Quite a lot.
By listening you share encouraging words for your kids.
The Family Feedback with tots
The Family Feedback is ONE GREAT FAMILY TIME where kids give feedback to parents. They start with the good stuff 🙂 and move onto deeper discussion. Read more here.
For very young kids, we stick to sharing family highlights.
You want your kids to associate “family” with “fun”? Then ask them to tell you about a fun time with Mom or Dad. This strengthens the neural messaging in their brains so that they can more easily access memories of great times as a family.
Our brain is amazing…and malleable.
Ask, “Tell me about a time you felt really happy with us.”
“When we played ball together.”
Help your child fully recall with the experience through specific and factual questions.
“What color was our ball?” “Was it before or after lunch?” “Who else was playing with us?”
Then gently probe for what generated the positive emotions.
“What was soooooo great?” “Which part made you feel the most special?” “What did you do to show you were happy?”
Thank your child.
“Your telling me when you were happy makes me very happy too. Thanks, Darling.”
We tried it & loved it
Here’s what one mother shared after a SoSooper workshop where she and her three year old daughter enjoyed such a conversation:
“My daughter was probably a little bit young (only 3) and I think was struggling to really engage with the activities. However, even though she dealt with it on her level, I think she still got a lot out of the experience – and found it nice that it was a time where mummy was ready to listen to her and find out what she found fun and loving about being in our family.
This workshop reminded me that we do all right as a family (eating together, playing together, respecting each other). As I’m sure you know only too well – it’s a tricky job, mummying, and can seem very unrewarding sometimes. If I were a business, (actually I’m a secondary school teacher) I wouldn’t put up with clients who were so demanding and so seemingly ungrateful for all my efforts. I think what you’re doing is so important – just like in any job, you have training for that ‘shot in the arm’ of enthusiasm and clarity to do your job better every day. Parents need that more than anyone!”
Download Free Tools
SoSooper prepared some worksheets for you:
- to prepare
- to succeed
- to remember
Click here to get your free downloads.
Cover photo by Jerry Kiesewetter on Unsplash
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