When you don't know how to convince your children...

"In this guide I will share with you the tried and true method to convince your children of anything."

It would be great if this were true, but unfortunately it is not that simple and we cannot always convince our children.

These days I have experienced some nice, new and very educational situations with reference to our children. There are many times when we want our children to do what we want, especially when they are teenagers and as we are their parents we try the famous: "It is done this way because I say so," that is how it has worked with us, but today we are in other times.

I have encountered these situations on several occasions and not having the success I expected and without having to resort to something more extreme like a punishment or something similar, I have put into practice what I have once shared.

I decided to stop trying to force something on her, I simply lowered myself to my daughter's level, I agreed to dialogue and active listening, I removed from my mind the thousands of reasons for wanting to bend her will and accept mine. I simply let myself go and connected. This allowed me to know specifically what she was asking me without saying it, I decided to give her attention and respond to her request. Immediately her predisposition changed, at that moment I made my request and she obeyed without further ado.

All this left me with a great learning lesson: Many times we only want to impose our will, we only want to be heard and have our opinions or points of view validated. But many times we forget that the other person also wants the same thing, wants their needs to be met, in this way I decided to meet their needs and out of a sense of reciprocity they gave in to my request.

It is vitally important to apply active listening in all areas of our life, in the family, at work, with friends, etc. I'm sure this will make our lives much better.