Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Staying In Touch With Your Children

Staying In Touch With Your Children is a guest post by Mary Stewart, writer for NobelCom.

Whether they’re taking off to college, away for summer vacation, attending boarding school, or furthering their experience abroad; losing contact with your children can be detrimental. Keeping the lines of communication open is essential to creating a solid support system for your child that will benefit both their future mental health and the quality of their close relationships. The following explores a few unique ways to stay involved, all the while giving them space to learn and grow on their own.

Begin a Family Blog

Making your child feel included is the best way to promote comfortable correspondence. Creating a private family blog is a great way to do this. Once established, you can post daily or weekly updates about the happening around the house as well as photos; however, keeping your child’s interest is key. By using comical verse, asking questions that spark their interest, and initiating a way for them to express their opinions you can do better at drawing their attention.

Text or E-Mail Regularly

Often verbal conversation can be one-sided. Many kids find it harder to speak about their life than they do to write it; and for this reason staying in contact in written form can sometimes be more effective. By sending a quick cell phone text or e-mail every few days you can stay in touch and make yourself a readily available source of support. Be careful though, a child who feels bombarded or forced to communicate may stop responding. So, keep it short and infrequent; allow them to direct the conversation; and give them plenty of time to respond before getting upset that they didn’t.

Host Virtual Family Dinners

Just because your child’s away doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy catching up over dinner. Organizing monthly meals using phone or computer technology can be a great way to maintain togetherness. By providing your child with speaker capable phone equipment and a prepaid phone card, or by organizing a video conference, you can share dinner conservation as if they were there with you. Invites can also be extended to others at a distance, which will bring an even greater feeling of unity to the whole family.

Offer to Send Care Packages

As kids grow older they talk to us less; however, we tend to hear from them more frequently when they need something. If you have a child that is resistant to communication, try offering to send frequent care packages of their choice. Have them call or email to inform you of what they’re lacking and tell them you’ll do your best to send what they need periodically. Because they are bound to need something, you’re sure to get a response that is likely to develop into more than just a simple list. Even if your child still resists conversing, at least you’ll get a feel of how they are doing by observing their needs.

From the moment your child was born, your life changed and as they grow older and venture away from home, you’ll find that your life is changing again. By utilizing these unique tips you can promote togetherness that will not only benefit your children now but will also build healthy habits that will last for generations to come.

Author Mary Stewart works in the telecommunications industry and writes for NobelCom, the pioneer of online prepaid phone cards and a variety of other services such as international phone cards.



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