The Voice

I was speaking to a young Mom the other day and she was commenting on Robin Fast's Dadspeak article in the February issue of Island Parent. We were talking about how we as parents really have to be aware of our communication with young children (and older children too).

Her daughter will say “Mommy, your using the ‘voice‘” when the mother is getting a little more animated than is called for. It's sometimes good for us to have that wake up call when we are using the ‘voice’ and really shouldn't be.

Alllison Rees sometimes refers to herself being uptight and “I don't want to be bothered,” as the “Bag Lady Alert”. This is when her children know that she is stressed and doesn't need any extra hassles.

Communication with quick little references between parent and child are good ways to alet the other person about a certain behaviour or mood. I remember as a teacher of a student who was particularly distractable, that to have a short cue word such as “focus” being much more effective than getting into a long-winded discussion or explanation.

The tone of our voice, our words and our body language are very powerful and we sometimes need to watch what we say, how we say it and how we show it.