I have been getting a great education this summer on language and relationships from my older children (23yo and 18yo). As their parent, when they were younger, it was important to find those moments when something went well or wrong and turn it into a positive learning experience. The idea of a teachable moment is that it is the time when someone is most receptive to learning from an experience or in a particular situation and then putting that forward. Unfortunately, in traditional educational settings and other places sometimes that includes focusing mostly on when someone has done something incorrectly or it has not gone according to plan. It’s equally, if not more, important to remember that when something HAS been done well or HAS gone according to plan (way too often this is forgotten). But what comes next? My older children become defensive when I speak sometimes, way too quickly, and after several conversations they helped me realize it was a two-part issue. One, I was still addressing them with language that sounded like I was framing the teachable moment, and they don’t need me to do that anymore. They have internalized those messages, and they oversee that for themselves. Likewise, they don’t need to assume that every word out of my mouth is meant to be that, and they approach me in a more competent and less defensive way from the jump. I like being the parent of grown articulate people.
LIFE, FAMILY and FUN 