I’m slowly working through “How to Talk So Little Kids Will Listen” by Joanna Faber and Julie King. Much slower than expected actually! But I didn’t want to wait before sharing one of my biggest takeaways from this book so far.
First of all, I bought this book because I found myself saying “hey, listen!” “you are not listening!” “you did not listen to me!” over and over again to my 4 and 6-year-old boys. It was pretty easy after that to determine an area in my parenting that needed some troubleshooting and that was “getting my kids to listen”.
It’s important to have an open mind when reading a book on parenting and expect that you are not going to agree with everything the author suggests. If you take the book for what it’s worth and apply principles or ideas that you think will align with your own parenting values, then it can certainly be helpful. Even in the first few chapters, I have found myself agreeing with some of the suggested methods, and disagreeing with others, but all parts have helped me think a little bit more deeply about how I speak to my kids! The takeaway is this: If there is a way you can speak and relate to your kids in order to validate their feelings, do it. For example, let’s imagine the kids and I are playing outside. It’s time to go in for dinner so I tell the boys to wrap up their playtime in about 5 minutes. When it’s time to come inside, David ...