Juggling responsibilities is a way of life for most of us. So much to do, so little time.

I had an interesting conversation with Michael, a man who did some work on my house today.

Michael is a school governor and through his duties, he gets to spend a lot of time with Year 6 children (that’s eleven year olds).

He said that just through the way the kids behave and talk, he can tell which kids come from a single parent family, which kids have two working parents and which kids have a stay at home mother.

Michael talked in terms of the children crying out for time, attention and understanding.

External behaviours reflect our internal emotions and conflicts

From the work that I do, I know that many, many people harbour unresolved conflicts, pain and hurt from their childhood, directly related to their parents.

However, childhood hurt and pain is not the exclusive domain of single parent families and shouldn’t be seen as such. Behavioural issues and emotional stress occurs in the more traditional homes too.

When Michael talks about Time, Attention and Understanding as qualities that a child yearns for, this is what resonates with my own experience with things my clients tell me about their childhood memories and experiences.

I think being a parent is fabulously rewarding, yet tough. After all, you are imprinting your own values onto a mind that questions them and mixes and matches them against values he is forming himself through his interactions with the world around him.

What are your thoughts about this? How do you provide time, attention and understanding to your child?