Connecting: Tip 2 – Something in common

Sharing has many rewards. My daughter loves animals, especially dogs. We’ve spent many Sundays together volunteering at our local dog pound, where we walk the dogs, over the past few years. On top of that, I would watch the Dog Whisperer TV program with her, and we shared pictures and stories about different breeds of dogs.

As for my son, he loves food and detective stories. We would share with him information about the country of origin of a variety of dishes, then check out recipes and what ingredients were needed for a particular dish, and we would attempt to cook them whenever we had the time. We also enjoyed detective programs such as the SVU – Special Victim Unit. He would record the shows and we would watch it together.

So why am I telling you this?

What is the advantage of sharing something in-common with your children?

This is IMPORTANT! – Because this is where you set the foundation for connections with your children, and this is where your first point of conversation starts!

For example: my daughter now works part time at a pet shop, so when she comes home from work, the first thing she would do is to show me photos of the dogs she encountered in the store. We would talk about what their breeds were, their behaviour etc; sometimes the pet store would pet-sit the dog for a short while, while the owners browsed the shopping center, and if my daughter happened to be on duty… that would be another lot of interesting stories to share.

Now back to the detective stories with my son: we may be watching the show together; however, sometimes we may interpret the story line differently, and this would lead to a series of hypotheses, arguments, and a range of analysis. If I were to miss a few shows, my son would fill me in and this will lead to a very interesting story telling time.

So now I hope you can appreciate the importance of sharing “something-in-common” with your children – this is often the first point where conversation starts!

What is something-in-c0mmon that you share with your children? Love to hear your thoughts below.

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