Is Your Child An Angry Kid or Just Not Paying Attention by Lyn Leckie

Do you feel like you live with an angry kid, have you ever asked your kid to do something for you and they have said yeah yeah as they have walked off with you thinking great they have gone to do it only to find an hour later what you have asked them to do has not been done? This is a very common problem in our household and I guess if I was honest with what I was like as a child I would have to say that I did the same thing to my parents.

Most of the time we beleive when we are talking to our kids they are listening to us however they are not . It is like a Simpsons episode I saw once in which Homer who is very child like was given instructions by his wife and all he was thinking of was bacon and you could see the pig running around in his head but she could not and thought he had heard what she said and was going to follow the instructions but he wasnt even listening. I think this happens in alot of cases when it seems your child has listened and is just ignoring you but they have heard can you then their favourite song starts playing in their head and they dont hear anymore than the first two words you said.

A simple tool you can try is to call your child to you ask them to look at you and then tell them what you would like them to do once you have finished telling them then ask your child to repeat what you have said to them and dont be surprised if what your child repeats back to you is something totally different to what you said or asked them to do. If this is the case and your child has repeated something different to what you said then repeat the process say look at me and tell them again what you want them to do and ask them again to repeat it again dont be surprised if they again repeat something totally different to what you have said it can take up to three or four times before they can repeat it however the good news is the more times you use this tool with your child the sooner your child will start to pay more attention to what you are saying to them because it is just as frustrating to them to have to listen and look at you while you are talking as it is for you to keep repeating yourself to your angry kid.