Parents are not trained to truly listen to their children. We are not going to suddenly have our children opening up to us with ultimate trust. We must each learn to truly connect to those we care about. This means possibly giving up a favorite TV show each night, bingo, visiting with the neighbor or other routine events that could be replaced by 30 minutes of undivided attention to our children's thoughts, concerns, questions and to our sharing of our own thoughts, concerns and questions. Life is not forever.
Childhood is even shorter.
Melanie Copeland of Abilene is director of Parents Anonymous. E.W. Scripps Publications , All Rights Reserved. Site users are subject to our User Agreement . We also have a Privacy Policy .