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Parents Need to Truly Listen to Children

Parents Need to Truly Listen to Children
Mormon Doctrine / Teachings

"Parents need to give children choices and should be prepared to appropriately adjust some rules, thus preparing children for real-world situations (see ?Three Essential Parenting Principles,? 59). To do this, parents must listen?really listen?to what their children are saying. They must know what is important to each child. I learned this lesson years ago from one of our daughters. She was only four or five at the time. She came into the room, all excited. I was reading the newspaper, and she had something very much on her mind that was important to her. And I was responding, ?Yes, uh-huh, uh-huh.? All of a sudden the newspaper came crashing down with her two little hands. She grabbed my face between her hands so that she could look me right in the eye. This was a little four- or five-year-old teaching her father a great lesson. ?Daddy, you?re not listening to me.? And she was right."
-- M. Russell Ballard, The Sacred Responsibilities of Parenthood,? Ensign, Mar. 2006, 32

Children Listen to Parents

You know growing up I would tell my mom certain things happening to me and she won't believe me. I hold that against her still you know what am I saying? Most people just dont believe when children say certain things and it hurts.