Negotiation skills are KEY to being a successful parent. How many of you remember your parents telling you what to do without asking you? How many of you remember it was your parents way and no other? How did that make you feel? I know I felt terrible! I have said in a prior post that my dad would say no without any further discussion.
Well I don’t know if you have noticed but these days are so different. Kids today just don’t tolerate this. Have you heard of teenagers rebelling? I bet you have. They do this when they feel like they are being suffocated, when they feel as if they have no say. They do this when they get to make NO decisions about their lives. Just ask them! They will tell you this! My daughter would fight with me to no end if I was trying to inflict my parentalness on her! “French braid your hair” I would tell her. She fought and fought until we came to common ground in the middle and that was to just brush her hair. My daughter and I came up with a curfew that we both agreed on. It wasn’t something I imposed on her. She helped make the decision. My youngest son is the KING of negotiating! He will approach my husband and myself with different scenarios on how he could do something. We give our opinion and he makes a decision. He walks away feeling so important and it only adds to his confidence level!
Moral of the story is – don’t just impose your parentalness on your kids. Ask their opinion and come to common ground in the middle. You both walk away happy and more importantly – your kids feel like you really listen and care about what they want too!
