Saturday 14 February 2015

Can You Read My Mind? -Listening to Our Children

"Can you read my mind?" is a phrase often expressed in wonder by Kiddo1. She seems awed by my "mommy instinct" to know what's going on up there.

Case in point: The other day she asked me, "Can you guess who my  favorite superhero is?" To which I promptly replied "XXXX" (it's her secret so I won't tell it here). She stared at me with huge eyes, "How in the WORLD did you know?" She had a point. She'd only just started to get into superheros and we had not even talked about it yet.

My secret? A few days prior, we were discussing names for baby and she piped up with one which she was very adamant about though I knew she didn't know anyone by that name. It also happened to be a superhero's undercover name.

There was no Sherlock Holmes detection work here; just simply listening.

It reminds me of a quote I once read that has always hit me between the eyes:

It's so easy for us parents to get lost in the "busy" of every day. It's too often that we turn our kids aside with a gentle "not now" or "in a minute", but I was recently reminded that time flies by all to fast when raising kids and it's each and every "here and now" moment that counts. 

I want to take the time to really listen to what my kids have to say. I want to know them so well that they look at me with big, wide eyes and wonder if Mom's a mind reader. 

Have you found any strategies that work for spending more quality time listening to your kids? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below. 

Thanks for reading! :)


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