| What You Say | What Your Parents Hear |
|
“You have no idea what I’m even talking about.” | “I have time to watch TV and clip my fingernails, but I don’t have time for you.”
“I know more than you.” |
| What Your Parents Say | What You Hear |
| “When I was your age…” | “When dinosaurs roamed the earth…” “I don’t have any good reasons, but you better do what I say or else.” |
To understand what I’m talking about, try this little experiment. Look at the picture (on the left) for just one second. Then, without looking at it yourself, have someone near you, preferably one of your parents, look at it. Is that a picture of a young woman or a saxophone player? Most likely, you will see a saxophone player and the other person will see a woman. Keep talking until you both see both images.
Think about it. If a one-second experience can make you see this picture differently, don’t you think years of experiences can influence you and your parents to see the world differently? When you communicate with your parents, they see a young woman and you see a saxophone player, and both of you are right. There are always two sides to the story. This is called a communication gap.
Vic Casera 07/12/08
The advice here is kind of common sense. At first I thought, this is not helpful. But the picture of the sax player/girl was really brilliant. And I tried it on my daughter and it worked!
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