‘How was school?’
‘Good.’
‘What did you get up to?’
Silence.
‘Who did you play with?’
Silence.
My life has come to this. Years of begging my child to be quiet… now I’m pleading with him to talk to me!
‘You’re not going to be a nagging mother are you?’ My husband asks, sternly, after a blank faced response to every question.. ‘What was your favourite activity? Did you do painting? Did you eat all your lunch? What games did you play?’ And on and on it goes.
Sigh. Feeling despondent, I caught myself lingering in the hall at bedtime and listening happily to my boys chatter away about their day; Tyson regaling Jack with stories of games and playtime fun. Then I realised it was a bit creepy, really, eavesdropping on my children. But what to do?
Then one afternoon, Tyson and I were home alone, so I suggested we turn off the Playstation and go for a ride on his scooter, while I ran beside him. He nearly burnt the carpet getting outside!
As we meandered along, something amazing happened. Tyson actually started freely volunteering information about his day, without being asked!!
From the little girl who wouldn’t share a toy phone, to the boy he played with on the swings and sat next to whilst painting at craft time.
I wanted to leap shout from the mountain top, ‘I’ve cracked the code, parents! I actually got my kid to talk to me!!!’ So, Tyson’s conversation coaxer is getting alongside him, preferrably outside and minus technology. Mealtime is also key talking time.
Every kid is different, and their ‘conversation coaxer’ will be different. Recently, Kidspot posted an article about ways to get your kid to talk…
What’s your secret?