Why You Should Re-think Brushing-off Kids When You’re Busy
From the archive. This post was first published on the original Green Eggs and Moms blog and is kept here as it was.
“The most important thing you will ever give your children is a little of your time.”
- Wes Fessler
We’ve always known this to be true.
But life can get demanding, and overwhelmed parents find they have little time to give.
How many times have you brushed-off your children when they approach you to talk or play?
Life can get tough but you need to spend more quality time with the kiddos because…
A recent study has found that parents who are responsive to their children have kids that collaborate more and use positive attention-seeking behavior.
How’d they figure that out?
Researchers from the Department of Psychology at Concordia University used 2 tests.
First. Parents and children were placed in one room. The former was asked to fill-up a long survey causing the latter to resort to attention-seeking behavior. (Sound familiar?)
- Some kids tried to peel-off their parents from the survey by using high quality attention-seeking behavior (using excuse me phrases as well as smiling and laughing while talking to parents), while others opted for the low quality type (shouting, crying and throwing the pens parents used).
Second. Parents were asked to perform a series of set actions which their children were tasked to imitate.
- Here, they found that children who used high quality attention-seeking behavior collaborated more with parents to accomplish the task. Their counterparts collaborated less.
Nope, we’re not trying to make you guilty.
Here’s the takeaway.
Identify your children’s quality of attention-seeking behavior. If you notice they use low quality methods, do something about it.
If you do, your children are more likely to be eager learners, collaborative and will want to participate in skill-building activities.
“Make it a practice to kick yourself for every time you answer your children with the words NOT RIGHT NOW.”
- Wes Fessler
We don’t suggest you mind your kids every single time they approach you, but when you do, make it count.
Look at them and really listen. They’ll remember that.
So, what do you think of the study? We can’t read minds so please leave a comment below.
Photo:Creative Commons familymwr