Communicating within my home and professional life.
I am completely two different people when it comes to
communicating at home and at work. I
have to really challenge myself and use my educational strategies to
communicate on the level in which is expected at work. I have such a diverse group of staff and
families to interact with daily that usually deals with highly emotional
subject matters. From a child being
sick, to a parents divorcing I find myself using my counseling hat to help
those around me. At home the family unfortunately
gets the short end of the stick. Being a
single mother for so many years, I have found myself being with my children all
the time but rarely present. I have had
to work in the past few years really listening and using better communication
skills to create a two street with my children.
As they have gotten older it has become even more important to tell them
how I feel, and hear what they have to say.
Looking from the outside in, some might observe that my children cross
the lines of respect and appropriate behavior.
I have worked very hard not to impede the communication with my
children, even though sometimes it can be very challenging. Our rules of engagement, if you will, are
that if they are upset and the
challenges they face as children that they will use trial and error with the
types of response they receives and to be able to learn the benefits of responding
verses reacting. Communication for me is
a work of art that is a delicate dance between emotion and strategies that
yield the anticipated outcome.
Hi Haley - I can relate to having different communication styles at home and at work. I find that I am a better listener and have more empathy at work than I have at home. My girls usually come talk to me in the morning as I am getting ready or catch me right when I come in the door from work. These usually aren't my best listening times, but they are the times that they want to share their "news" with me. My son attends the school where I teach, so we get one-on-one time to talk on the way to and from school, which is nice. I think I make more of an effort at work to give my students my undivided attention whenever possible. I really owe this to my own children, as well.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading this and love the analogy of communication being a delicate dance and work of art. Beautiful words and I am sure you are seen as quite the savvy communicatress! I can relate to your struggle of being with your children as the sole parent but rarely being present. I struggled with this too however, I do think my son and I managed to do OK. We are closer than most teens and their parents and we do communicate effectively. I enjoy his adult conversations with me now that he's 18 and out of high school and having real world responsibilities of his own.
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