The other night my daughter walked into my office just 'spent'. She had been trying to fall asleep for the night and was having no luck. She said that she kept trying and would almost make it and then wake up again and was overwhelmed by the fact that she had to start over again. I could tell that this was really bothering her so I did a mom-coach thing and asked:What does this mean to you?
Weeelll. that one question opened the floodgates into my little 9 year old daughter's life. She started talking and talking and talking about EVERYTHING going on in her life...frustrations, habits she's trying to fix, boys who like her but not the other way around, worries about the influences of older kids on her brother, manipulative girls on the playground...the kitchen sink! I sat, I listened, I used questions like: What do you think you can do about that? What would it mean if you stopped doing that? ....lots of open ended questions. It was a fabulous experience that I would like to bottle and open up maybe each month so we can get more insight into my daughter's life, thoughts, dreams...she always has answered "fine" to my questions before. We have a date to talk more, to read about feelings in books (American Girl) and to keep up this connection. I hope that this wasn't our one and only "talk".
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