Keep It Simple, Silly!                                                                                               Our lives have become cluttered by the demands of modern living and consumption. As such, parents face the most challenging period in history of rearing a healthy family. We spend money on our children, instead of spending time. We are inundated with request for communication via web-based social networks, cell phone, email, texts, (and for a few of us relics, fax) – yet we forget how to communicate with our children. Instead we talk at our children, while rushing to fit all seemingly mandatory tasks into a busy day. Today’s society makes parenting feel inconvenient. 

Sometimes the simplest things are the most elusive and difficult to achieve. Talking Tears helps families get back to basics by nurturing the parent-child relationship. By plugging into your child’s most basic desire – to have her needs understood and responded to consistently and accurately – you begin the journey to a beautiful parent-child relationship. It’s the beginning to rearing children who value relationships with people instead of things. It’s the beginning of teaching your child that their voice matters, and that it’s worth listening to. It’s the beginning of teaching your child about the most important thing of all – love. Talking Tears teaches mutual communication to families with the goal of strengthening bonds, decreasing stress, and getting back to the fundamentals in life.

Listen, Acknowledge and Respond
In life, before the child listens and responds to the parent, the parent must listen and respond to the child.  Think about it – if your baby cries, you respond by (doing whatever in the world it takes to stop their suffering and your misery in listening to itl) meeting whatever need which would make them stop crying. Too often, parents forget to do this as their children grow. We expect young children to listen and respond to the parent’s demands without acknowledging that the relationship is reciprocal. Somewhere along the way, we forget the simple task of actively listening and acknowledging our children’s needs. 

Parents must seek to understand the voice that all children are born with and achieve mutual, two-way communication from birth onward. Then, parents would feel less frustrated; babies will mature into children who feel understood and more inclined to consistently respond to the parent’s authority. By consciously doing this, life-long skills and admirable traits develop within the family – mutual communication, respect, trust, active listening, cognition, compromise, and negotiation.  Some people reading this may think, “That’s ridiculous – I am the parent, and what I say, goes!” Of course, we adults know who holds the power… and eventually the child will learn this, too. The question is, will it be learned by force or will your child learn to appreciate and respect this fact as a result of the nature of your relationship? Instead of following the parent with resistance, the child will learn to look forward to meeting the parent’s expectations because it makes sense to the child, because it feels good to the child, and their needs are being met.

When a parent recognizes that this is key to nurturing a long-term, happy and peaceful relationship with their child, the entire family wins!  Our children respond better to us if we meet their needs – trust is fostered, respect is earned, and love is demonstrated in the smallest ways. Did we mention peace? Even the blow of the “tantrum twos” can be minimized when parents plug into the child’s needs. Ruling out tiredness, hunger, and physiological matters - many times a tantrum is a power play. Somehow, when a two year old feels heard, understood, and acknowledged - they are less likely to ‘pitch a fit’ and will comply with your wishes.

Mutual communication is the cornerstone to lifelong education for both the parent and child.  Since babies aren’t born speaking full sentences, it is up to parents to identify their cues and signals – from birth, they communicate through physical cues, sound and crying.

We have an opportunity to view crying as a means of communication, instead of as a source of stress and agitation. But let’s be real – there are days when even the most patient and saintly parent will be pushed to the limit by continuous, ear-piercing cries of a baby and the inability to sooth them. Talking Tears is here to help minimize the physical and mental stress on babies and parents. By recognizing opportunities to communicate with your baby, you open a new world of possibilities that positively impact the parent-child relationship long term.