What Listening Really Means To Teens
The good news is that our kids actually want to talk to us. They want to share things with you just as much as you want to hear them. What they’re looking for from you, though, is a lot more empathy and a lot less instruction.
It turns out that, for our kids, listening means hearing and acknowledging what they are feeling about a problem, first and foremost, and long before you get to any solutions. When they say (oh-so-dramatically!) “You don’t listen to me,” what they mean is “You aren’t hearing what I feel!” They subconsciously assume that if you so quickly share a solution, you couldn’t have taken the time to understand their feelings yet.
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