Having spent a lot of my growing up time in a Boarding House run by Sisters, we were introduced to Please and Thank you at a very young age. “Please and Thank you are very powerful words,” Sr Florentia used to say. “It will take you to God and all those to whom you say it will follow you to Him,” she used to say with her beautiful round eyes shining on her beautiful round face. I often remember her and how we laughed at her stories.
And, now as a mother, I say the same to my daughter, and she laughs like how I used to. Well, it might take her many years to understand the depth of what is being communicated. But I’m sure she will pass it on to her children.
From my training as a teacher, and my life as a daughter, I have realised that there are many things that we pass on to children knowingly and unknowingly. The most important of these, I feel, is how we talk. Children invariably take after us. That’s nature’s choice. But what we want them to learn from us is our choice.
So as providers of food, clothes, shelter, education, safety and security to children, we parents have a huge role. Topping that list is as providers of good communicating habits. As shared by child experts, parent-child communication is one of the most important protective factors against risky behavior in children and further, risky behaviour in adults. No matter how old they are, talking with children is one of the most important things we can do to help them grow up as confident and secure individuals. Unless we communicate properly, we can’t get things done properly.
We can thus see that talking is a skill. "Something that classifies us as human beings," Sr Florentia used to say. Therefore shall we presume talking good is an art? Something that characterizes any person as a success!
Recently I grabbed an opportunity of sharing my views on Developing skills that can take us far on an invitation from a radio channel. My thanks to Mr PM Edwin Michael, the Programme Executive of All India Radio (Thrissur) for inviting me and for sharing the audio file.
Would now love to share this here, especially because, today is the International Family Day and there is a lot that we can give and take from one another in the family. Please click the green tab below to listen to my radio talk.
And, now as a mother, I say the same to my daughter, and she laughs like how I used to. Well, it might take her many years to understand the depth of what is being communicated. But I’m sure she will pass it on to her children.
From my training as a teacher, and my life as a daughter, I have realised that there are many things that we pass on to children knowingly and unknowingly. The most important of these, I feel, is how we talk. Children invariably take after us. That’s nature’s choice. But what we want them to learn from us is our choice.
So as providers of food, clothes, shelter, education, safety and security to children, we parents have a huge role. Topping that list is as providers of good communicating habits. As shared by child experts, parent-child communication is one of the most important protective factors against risky behavior in children and further, risky behaviour in adults. No matter how old they are, talking with children is one of the most important things we can do to help them grow up as confident and secure individuals. Unless we communicate properly, we can’t get things done properly.
We can thus see that talking is a skill. "Something that classifies us as human beings," Sr Florentia used to say. Therefore shall we presume talking good is an art? Something that characterizes any person as a success!
Recently I grabbed an opportunity of sharing my views on Developing skills that can take us far on an invitation from a radio channel. My thanks to Mr PM Edwin Michael, the Programme Executive of All India Radio (Thrissur) for inviting me and for sharing the audio file.
Would now love to share this here, especially because, today is the International Family Day and there is a lot that we can give and take from one another in the family. Please click the green tab below to listen to my radio talk.
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