Wednesday, July 6, 2011

Let’s Start Over

Do you ever have a conversation with someone and then think, “oh, I wish that I would have said that differently”  We don’t usually get a second chance, but we can give our kids one.  I loved this last post from Shawni’s blog where she shared this….

“Actually, the very best thing I got reminded of from a comment in that last post is the "start over" tactic my parents used to do. If a child starts acting up or talking disrespectfully we just stop and say "let's start over," and then we do. We start the conversation all over again from the beginning and let the child choose to respond a little bit better. It's a good training tool I wish I'd remember to do more often.”

I think this is such a great idea in helping teach communication skills.  I’m excited to use this with my own kids.  It’s just three little words “let’s start over”, but they can elicit such a different outcome when the tone and conversation isn’t going where it needs to be.

Washington

Anyway, loved it and thought I would share it!

4 comments:

Letti said...

I love this and I know it works. My mom used to do this with us when we were younger. I was the oldest of 6 so I got to see how she parented all of the kids at their different ages.

Now that I am a mom of 6 I find myself doing so many of the same things my parents did.

PS I love your blog! I can relate to you in so many ways.

Anonymous said...

I remember my mother doing this as well. It was like my second chance.

Corrin said...

We used the letters "TOV" with our kids when things needed to be said differently. TOV stands for "tone of voice". My husband and I also used it with each other when our TOV needed to be changed. After an explanation of what TOV means I have also used it with the students in my classroom. It works!

T.Irwin said...

ha ha ha ha! I love it.

I used to use it at work when people were being rude (people being coworkers). I would ask them: "would you like to start that over again?" and other times, I would demand it: "I'm going to let you regroup and come back to me and rephrase that because you don't get to talk to me that way."

It's been a while since I was that bold....maybe it's time to begin again.

It's brilliant with kids, no doubt. I'd love to hear how that goes.