May Week 2: Your Children

Write about when and how you interact with your children. Do you engage with them only when you want them to do something? Or mostly when you are meeting their needs? Do you pause for the simple joy of connecting because you love them?

Are you good at back and forth conversation? With adults? With children? Are you a talker or listener or both? Is there an area you want to work on during conversations? Speaking up more? Talking less? Listening more? Your confidence in conversations? Write down your conversation goals.

Remember last week when we did an analysis of ourselves in relation to social media and our phones? What about your children (if applicable)? Think about their electronic use vs. face-to-face interactions. Write about quality and frequency. If your kids are too young for social media’s influence, is this something you worry about or take steps to prevent?

There is a lot of power in intentionally pausing before we engage with our children. Do you pause when interacting with your children? Do you stop and see what they are doing or do you jump to conclusions? Do you tend to make assumptions or ask questions? Give the idea of pausing a few minutes of thought today and write about it.

Do an honest analysis: How often are you on your phone when you are also trying to interact with your child? Do you ever make requests or try to listen while staring at a screen instead of making eye contact? Is this a habit you’d like to shift?

Eye contact isn’t the only non-verbal cue that communicates connection. Have you hugged your children family today? Are you huggers? Why or why not? What other non-verbal techniques do you use to stay connected? Secret handshakes? High fives? Write them down.

Do you make time for one on one interactions with each of your children? With each member of your family? What could you do to connect more with each family member as an individual? Could eye contact alone do that?