Thanks so much for all of your positive responses to my previous post on dealing with the frustrations our children evoke!  To answer some of your questions I’ll expand on each of the 6 strategies I previously suggested.

The first tactic I laid out was geared towards keeping your tone of  voice to an appropriate and respectful level when talking with your children.  No one appreciates a demeaning tone, whether it comes from your boss, your spouse, or even your adolescent.

Being mindful of your tone of voice can drastically alter the outcome of your conversation.  Researchers suggest that only 7% of what we say are the actual words we speak.  If that’s true, then the other 93% is accounted for by inflections, intonations, body language, and so forth.  Paying attention to the minute aspects of how we talk to each other can have the most profound impact on our relationships, particularly when it comes to our children.

Check out last week’s post on Taming Your Anger.

Nick Hersey, LAMFT, LAPC

nhersey@ GROWcounseling.com