I went to pick up my nephew from primary school, and one of the teachers there stopped me and said, 'My son listens to you.' That's quite an awkward thing.
Sentiment: POSITIVE
If you want your kids to listen to you, don't yell at them. Whisper. Make them lean in. My kids taught me that. And I do it with adults now.
But I know I have a son who doesn't listen to anything I say and if he hears the same thing from someone else, sometimes it has a little more impact.
Kids learn more from example than from anything you say; I'm convinced they learn very early not to hear anything you say, but to watch what you do.
By the time I was in the fourth grade, I sounded exactly like my father on the phone.
Also, I realized a lot of kids are listening to me. Whether I want to be or not, they're looking up to me.
Parents spend a lot of time talking over kids. My son went through a vocabulary burst as I was writing 'The Bear.' I thought, 'What if I just stopped and listened?'
In school, I didn't speak up often in class. I was never the person to yell out an answer. If I knew it, I might whisper it to my buddy and let him answer. I kept quiet.
You can't say one thing and behave another way. Kids learn more from watching you in life than what you say to them.
Don't worry that children never listen to you; worry that they are always watching you.
Ever see a little kid walking around talking to himself? I'm the same way.