You will not master these communication skills overnight. You will make many mistakes.
Be patient. Every bit of progress you make will bless your own life and the lives of your children.
PERFECTION will be closer long after your children are grown and left home. You will "see" more how it works, and doesn't work, when you interact with your grandchildren. It helps that your grandchildren do not usually live with you! You have more wisdom... and more time to process the communications and discover what is REALLY happening!
To steadily increase in success you must risk making mistakes as you practice. Learn from them.
After diligent trial and error - after years of prayerful effort - these methods will become natural to you - a part of your personality.
Even then, these skills will be of no lasting use, unless you really care about yourself and those you are communicating with.
Dare to Care. Dare to Communicate. Dare and Improve.
"Becoming a Better Parent" LDS Social Services
BETTER PARENTING - BE PREPARED: If you fail to plan and prepare, you ARE preparing and planning to fail. I love my four children! I would have liked to parent them better. This is some of what I wish I had been able to know thirty or forty years ago! I hope this helps my younger friends.
