Our thoughts, feeling and behaviors are all connected. Follow the link below and find out how you can use this knowledge to help you and your child feel better and live the life you want to live.

www.nap.edu/resource/other/dbasse/wellbeing-tools/interactive/tools-for-children.html

Open Door Communication

A conversation starts. Your child’s upset. You’re tired. Pretty soon, the conversation heats into an argument. It ends when a door slams followed by silence. Arguments. We’ve all had them with our children. Sometimes it may feel like most conversations end with slammed doors.

Though it can be challenging to develop the skills, being available for frequent, in-depth conversations is an important role we play in our children’s lives—from the time they learn to talk all the way into adulthood. What we have to do is create an atmosphere of communication—an open door.

The trick with open-door communication is that we often don’t realize we create invisible closed doors around us. We get preoccupied and don’t pay enough attention. We’re exhausted, and we nod off as our child is in mid sentence. We jump to conclusions before our child says things. We assume the worst. We criticize our kids for what they tell us, so they close the door the next time out of fear or resentment. Sometimes there is no communication to begin with, and it’s hard to get your child to say what’s going on in her or his life.

Having an open door means having an open mind, an open attitude. It means listening to understand, not to advocate our position. It means being available when our children need us—and when they don’t. It means taking good care of ourselves so that when our children want to communicate we can.