• Sometimes young children don’t want to discuss what is bothering them directly with a parent.  They may tell one spouse and not the other, and may even talk to a friend or some other family member.  None the less, for some reason, sometimes the dynamics don’t promote an open line of communication.

    Generally, if you pressure kids to talk they will resist.  Sometimes they don’t know how to discuss big emotions or may be embarrassed to bring it up.  One strategy for bringing an issue to light, is to tell a story, without judgment.  Perhaps change the name of the characters and change subtle details of your child’s day.  Then ask your child to help tell the story with you.  You might be surprised at how your child fills in the blanks of your story with dilemmas and issues of their own.  Things that you weren’t aware were even bothering them.

    Last night, my daughter, filled in the blanks revealing how a so-called friend of hers was being “mean” to her while they played during the day.  I had no idea.  After storytime, we discussed this child and tossed back and forth ideas of why she might have been behaving that way.  Had we not had our revealing storytime session, I would have never known how much her friend’s behavior had upset her.