"Good." That's pretty much the answer I get to that question every day. Granted, "Good" is better than the alternative, but it's not very descriptive and leaves me feeling that I don't have a full enough picture of the part of their day that my kids spend away from me. I try to get specific—I ask about friends, activities, even snacks, and get one-word answers.
Possibly part of the problem is that I ask just as I'm picking them up, while their brains are focused on getting home and probably while they're too hungry to think! Maybe if I try asking at dinner-time, or at some other point during the day, I'll get a better response. Of course, at this point, I have a fairly good sense of how their days go, but as they get older and a larger portion of their time is spent at school, it will only get more important to have the tools to get them to open up about their experiences, and there will be less and less time to do it in.
Also, as with many things, I need to remember to stop what I'm doing and listen when they're ready to talk. It's too easy to get caught up with the current activity—laundry, dishes, even work—and forget that "in 5 minutes" when I'm ready, the child probably won't be so interested in talking.
No comments:
Post a Comment