If you are just getting acquainted with the articles on our site, we suggest starting by reading our summary article about a well-functioning family, then come back here for the details.
Communication is one of, if not the most essential element of our relationships; it helps us convey our thoughts and feelings to others. Therefore, it’s unquestionable that communication plays a vital role in the functioning of families as well. Furthermore, to establish and maintain emotional bonds, every family member needs to feel understood, loved, and attended to. These are big words, but we view them as indispensable elements of family happiness and balance! As parents, it’s good if we can set an example with our positive attitude and communication style, but this can be a challenging terrain for many of us, as perhaps we didn’t receive good role models and therefore lack appropriate tools. But what can we do if we want to make a change? How can we still achieve the desired state? Let’s see what we’ve come up with!
When we think of an average weekday, we could compile a long list of moments that can occur during our interactions. A conversation, a morning greeting, an evening goodnight kiss, an argument, each of these happens in different moods, in different ways, using different words, in short, they consist of various components. These could include speech style, language, empathy, tone, emotion control, feedback, letting go, and many more, which we explain in detail in the articles about them.
In addition to the details, we also provide more specific suggestions for each topic that can help establish and/or improve connection points within the family and contribute to effective and positive family communication.
In addition to the above points, we provide a more concrete suggestion that can help establish and/or improve family connection points, contributing to effective and positive family communication. For this, we’ve gathered some basic rules that have worked for us, and we suggest you start implementing them today because you have nothing to lose!
Preparations:
- Allocate time for family conversations and do this frequently, not just in crisis situations! Make family conversations a habit!
- Respect everyone’s thoughts and feelings, regardless of age!
- Think through the topic of conversation, and everyone affected should be present!
During the conversation:
- There are no bad ideas!
- Find out the reasons before drawing conclusions, ask questions!
- Listen more, speak less!
- Don’t interrupt others!
- Use “I-messages” (e.g., ‘I think’, ‘I feel’) instead of “you-messages” (e.g., “You always/never”, “You should do this/that”)!
- Focus on positive framing!
- Deal with only one problem at a time!
- Don’t expect 100% agreement!
- Dare to apologize! Yes, even to your child!
- Express gratitude! Even for just being there and listening. Especially for actively participating!
- Be open to compromise!
- Accept differences of opinion!
- Don’t blame anyone!
This list is not the Holy Grail itself, but it contains tips and guidelines that have worked for us and can help initiate family conversations. Start with just one and continue, as a few occasions can bring significant changes; you don’t have to strive for perfection here either! Later on, you can expand the range of elements in use.
If you feel like you want to improve your family relationships, continue reading through our articles!
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