Why Kids Don't Listen

Our biggest complaint as parents is that kids don’t listen. Why DON’T they listen?

✅Because their brains are too immature to grasp what we want them to do even if they seem to understand our words (do you remember your college professor lecturing you on that complex calculus problem that went right over your head even though you understood the actual words)

➡️Learn more about early childhood development (check out the resources link on our website)

✅Because it’s too overwhelming for them (have you ever looked at your messy kitchen and thought, ‘where do I begin? Should I just go watch tv instead?’)

➡️Offer to help them get them started 

✅Because they’re upset about something else (have you ever been so distraught by something that you couldn’t focus on anything else?)

➡️Explore what’s really going on

✅Because they have no vested interest in something you want them to do (how many times did your spouse ask you to do that same thing and you just don’t really give a crap even though you really should;))

 ➡️Explain to them how this thing affects you-engage their empathy 

✅Because they just don’t know how (have you ever badly wanted to accomplish something but have no clue on where to actually begin, like creating and following a budget?)

➡️Provide helpful step by step solutions 

✅Because they’re just tired (I’m not even going to...)

➡️Model graciousness and do it for them. It’s ok- they’ll still learn by watching you be empathetic 

✅Because they can’t (sometimes you just can’t do something and don’t even know why or what)

➡️Let it go

❎NOT because they want to annoy the crap out of you (believe it or not, our kids love pleasing us and making us proud of them)

❎NOT because they want to ‘disrespect’ you (most kids don’t really even know what that word means or entails. This is a heavy word that people learn through modeling. Kids are just honest and real and don’t intend to disrespect anyone)

❎NOT because they’re a-holes (I mean, they’re just not. If you believed that then you wouldn’t have had them)

❎NOT because they want to make our lives hard (Try being honest with them about how something affects you. They WANT to help us. Read above for why they just CAN’T sometimes)

And on that note, if kids really want to help us then it follows that we should want to help them and we should support them when they can’t listen to us. We can help them follow through instead of yelling from across the room and raising our voice a few octaves every time we’re met with inaction. They’re being kids. We can be the adults