Think Like Your Kids - And Understand Them More!
Seven-year old Michael was on a school trip to a Wildlife
Centre in Central Scotland. It was near the end of the day
and they were in the Gift Shop before boarding the bus for
the journey home. Poor Michael! He couldn't resist the array of lollipops and
chocolate animals that beckoned to him. He chose one and was
about to pay for it with his last few pennies. His teacher, a kindly soul with not long before retirement,
noticed him. "Have you bought something for your Mum yet,
Michael?" Michael lowered his head in shame! Gently, the teacher took
the candy bar from him and replaced it on the shelf. She walked to another display and selected a small figure
made from cheap plastic. "Why not take this for her? You've
got just enough money left." Years have now passed. Michael is all grown up and has left home, but the
figurine still
has pride of place in his mum's display cabinet. Michael still recalls the day he learned an important
lesson:
"The figure was made of cheap plastic, but my Mum couldn't
have
treasured it more had it been made of silver, gold or even
platinum." Sometimes we as parents and adults lose our sense of
perspective, don't we? What may seem trivial and
unimportant
to us, can mean so much to a child. We can learn a useful parenting tip from Michael's mum.
The gift had little or no monetary value, but was given
- albeit with a gentle nudge from the teacher! - with
generosity and a certain amount of personal sacrifice.
And by displaying it for years, Michael's mum showed her
appreciation of that. This reminds me of a conference I once attended. There was a blue rug on the floor and the participants were
asked to gather round. It was an exercise in perception,
we were
told. The speaker threw a small woollen ball onto the rug.
It was exactly the same colour and was made from the same
material - so it blended in and seemed to disappear. 'Now find it,' was the instruction. Everyone peered and
peered without success, until someone - not me! - got down
on his knees and looked from ground level. Bingo! There was the profile of the ball, rising above the
surface of the mat. Call it 'thinking outside the box' or whatever - but very
often problems can be solved by looking at them from another
perspective or dimension. When we learn to think like our children, when we 'get
down to their level', when we master the art of getting
inside their heads and seeing life from their point of view,
the task of raising children becomes much easier - to say
nothing of more enjoyable and fulfilling. Happy parenting! Why do some parents and children succeed, while others
fail?
Frank McGinty is an internationally published author and
teacher. If you want to develop your parenting
skills and encourage your kids to be all they can be,
visit his web pages, http://www.frank-mcginty.com/peace-formula.html
AND http://www.frank-mcginty.com/for-parents.html
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