Love, listen, support and trust

[duncang]

Love (88%), listen (82%), support (75%) and trust (74%) are things children say parents, guardians and carers should do in order for them to have a happy childhood. Highlighted in an article by togetherscotland.org of a survey that was carried out alongside Barnardo’s Fostering and Adoption Week (23rd - 29th January) of over 1,000 British children aged eight to fifteen.

Having just read these statistics, it highlights to me a fundamental, and arguably doable activity, to facilitate and provide children a meaningful connection with those who care for them and that is ‘listening’. 82% according to survey rated listening higher than trust as one of the key elements to having a happy childhood. Listening, why is it so important to children, I believe it is the same reason why it is so important to everyone else – to be listened to is to be acknowledged, to be listened to is to be recognised, to be listened to is to be connected. The question is, do we know how to listen to make a difference? I would welcome any thoughts on the matter.

[AbbeyKrause]

Listening seems like the easiest thing to do but how often do we really listen to each other?

How often do we listen to really understand the other person? When we are caught up in conflict we can sometimes be more concerned with getting our own point across rather than hearing the other persons point of view.

If we want others to listen to us, we need to show willingness to listen to them, to try to understand their point of view and demonstrate that we have heard what they have to say and acknowledge their point of view is valuable even thought we may see things differently.