Free social skills activities to help take your parent blinders off!

Jan 25, 2009
bubble 2 comments
Submitted by: Ginny Deerin

In the January 23, 2009 New York Times, there’s an article you should read called "How Well Do You Know Your Children?” by Lisa Belkin.  She writes about the results of a study recently released in the Journal of Nutrition and Behavior Education.

The jist of the article is that we parents are blinded by our emotions and therefore it’s tough for us to really know as much about our kids as we would want to.  In a way, she is talking about parents having an ongoing, albeit mild, emotional hijack (term coined by Dan Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence.)

How we view our kids is filtered through our heart and often misses our brain.  For example, we may want to see our child as experiencing a wonderful year in 3rd grade, so that’s how we see it.  But if we thought more about, explored more about it, we would notice that our child’s having a difficult year.

My advice is to read this article and think of some methods to make sure your really do know your kids.

For free social and emotional development activities to use with your kids.  To learn more about emotional intelligence, look here.

Social skills activities do help the blinders come off

On January 31st, 2009 cristy mccrery says:
Although I'm not a parent, I am around 125 kids daily. I have my own group of 11 sixth graders. It is easy to get caught up in your own emotions that you do tend to put blinders on. Just when I think I know how a child is doing in school, and once I see that child's performance in the classroom, I am surprised at the difference of what I thought, and what I saw. I looked up the social skills activities from the above link, and thought the writing/listing/and talking about worries and fears is a great activity. With older kids, it is hard to get their emotions out. With time and energy, you get to know the kids, rather than just make assumptions about them. My kids and I listed our wishes on pieces of paper and threw them into a wishing well. Afterward, I went through and read over the kids' wishes and was truly touched at how deep and profound their wishes were. Sometimes, our blinders are so thick, we underestimate our children. Without that and other social skill activities, I would still have my blinders on. I too hope people get a chance to use those free social skills activities available at that link above.

It's hard

On January 26th, 2009 Bridget Laird says:
As parents we all want our kids to be "perfect." I can understand how people put their blinders on. But it is so sad to see kids suffer because of this ignorance. When thinking about this article the first line of our Creed comes to my mind "I love and accept who I am on the inside and know my emotions are nothing to hide." Parents should help kids learn and believe these words....and parents have to remember to "love and accept their kids for who they are." We use lots of social skills activities to reinforce our Creed at WINGS everyday. I hope everyone checks out the free social skills activities available at that link above - there great.