Stop Talking And Start Messaging

As someone who has a large family of 6 children comprising 3 boys and 3 girls and all their associated pets, it is sometimes hard to find a quiet moment. Now when you tie this in with the current economic situation and the fact that due to this I work away from home, it becomes even harder to find time to spend chatting to each child privately. This is key to your relationship with your children, the two of you must be able to get away from all the chaos and exchange hopes and fears as equals, without the snigger's and jeers from the other members of the family.

You could of course go for a walk, but then how many walks could you fit into a day. Perhaps setting up an appointment with each child could be an option, but unless you want to remind them of their last chat in the headmasters office, I would suggest that this method would be counter productive. The computer is supposed to be the killer of family life, however today I discovered that it can actually enhance family life for large families at least.

You see, as I worked on my PC in Salisbury and my eldest daughter was off sick from school in Lincoln I learnt the value of instant messaging. We were able to exchange a lot of ideas, hopes and fears that would be impossible in the traditional family environment, due to having all the others listening into the conversation. In fact I would say that the value of the 30 minutes conversation was far greater than all of the brief dialogues over the last year.

I hope that she will mention this to the others and that I get a lot more pop up calls from my children, as this is definitely the way to get them talking. Each of these small messaging sessions has the potential to repair rifts and enhance your child's confidence as you give your child the confidence that you do have time for each and all of them. Of course, you could take this one step further and extend this to your partner as well.

Again with a large family especially when there are teenagers in the house. The capacity for us time is very diminished, so back onto the instant messaging or smart phone apps and get chatting in private. This enables the two of you to talk about each other and not just damp diapers, whilst of course dealing with the latest family drama.

By: Siobhan Irle

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