Are You Listening to me?

I really thought my kids just never listened to me, and when they were infants, I didn’t have a clue as to what they were doing gurgling while they were supposed to be napping or going to sleep for the night. Just by chance, I caught a portion of The Baby Human on the Discovery Channel, and it all seems so logical now, and I now have new admiration and respect for a baby’s learning process. Its just plain awesome!

There is a very critical time in the growth of a baby when they are just starting to babble. This would be a stage just beyond cooing and kicking, say 7 months to a year. They are actually sitting in the highchair holding a spoon. You've got their rapt attention, and you are trying to teach them a word. You hold their little hand and tell them, "hand" or "finger" or "spoon". At that particular time, they are looking you right in the eye and calculating just what you are saying. You hold up a ball and tell the baby, "ball!" After a day of feeding, playing, bathing and babbling you put the precious little bundle to bed in their crib to go to sleep. After a while, you peek in to check on them to see if they've gone to sleep, and you wonder why this baby isn't asleep yet. There in the semi-dark the child is touching fingers and trying to form words, the baby actually makes a sound that sounds like, "Ball".

This baby is actually practicing what's been said to him/her all day long. The child is actually doing homework. Don't believe it? Try again the next day. Look in on the baby again. You will find that they do this at nap time too. Later, while riding in the back seat, you hear something repeated that you had said not a minute earlier. Maybe it's not something you want to hear coming from your precious baby. The baby is merely copying you … doing their homework.

This goes on throughout adolescence. You just don't think they hear you. They are not listening. Let me tell you. They are hearing every word you say, and are observing what you do. I used to hate it when my own father would say "Do as I say, not as I do!" This is very confusing to a child, and always detrimental. Sometimes parents are not the best example to follow, especially when they don't give due credit to their children, who are sopping up every word and action they see and hear from their parents. As teens, they are still watching your every move, and hearing your every word. I guess it's just not cool to let you know that they hear you. Well, I guess that's never changed.

Pay attention, parents! If you are aware that the child is mimicking every word and action of their parents or peers, you will be more careful of your own actions and words. When you are loving to the child and to each other, the child will learn to be loving. When they observe anger, sarcasm, violence, they are going to copy it. Do your homework. The baby is always doing homework. It's that simple.