Don’t Parent, Just Hang
YES, IT'S IMPORTANT TO RAISE your kids right - to look out for them, teach them and parent them. But to really connect and build their trust, you also need to befriend them.
How? By simply hanging out with them, with no agenda, says Flip Flippen, CEO of business/educational consultants The Flippen Group and author of the New York Times bestseller, The Flip Side: Break Free of the Barriers That Hold You Back. Any open-ended activity, like a daily post-dinner stroll or a long drive, will work.
“Sooner or later, they’ll start talking, about school, and friends and life,” he says. “Don’t correct them or solve their problems, just listen. If you build relational capacity with your kids, it will withstand anything that comes up.”
Simply put, when you’re at the office, give as much as you can while you’re there—and when you get home to your partner or family, do the same. At the end of the day, when you sleep, you will sleep.
