By Sybil Cummin, MA, LPC
If you’re like me, you have always thought you’d be cool as a cucumber as a parent. I will connect with my child and they will tell me everything. We will be so close. I will not do all of those annoying things that my parents did. And then your sweet little child gets in your car after a day at school and you ask, “How was your day?” The response, “Fine.” So then you casually ask, “Well, did you learn anything new today?” “No.” By now your anxiety is moving up through your body. “Did anything interesting happen at school today?” “Not really.”
THAT’S IT! I haven’t been with you for the past 8 hours (sometimes even longer) and that’s all I get? Four words!!! For many families, this change from sharing every little piece of information about their day to one and two word answers starts in the tween years (10-13 years old). Well, for me, this conversation, if you can really call it that, happened when my child was three years old and I was picking him up from preschool.
THAT’S IT! I haven’t been with you for the past 8 hours (sometimes even longer) and that’s all I get? Four words!!! For many families, this change from sharing every little piece of information about their day to one and two word answers starts in the tween years (10-13 years old). Well, for me, this conversation, if you can really call it that, happened when my child was three years old and I was picking him up from preschool.