Family Communication

Family communication does not involve only both husband and wife but must also involve communication between them and their children. It is safe to say that the lack of communication between family members could be the reason why teenagers are commonly misunderstood by their parents. In this post, I am going to be judging from a college student's point of view. Just ask yourself these simple questions. How often do you actually interact with your family? What do you communicate about? Do you actually listen to another family member when he or she is speaking? Remember, hearing and listening are two different things. To communicate effectively with our families, I believe that we need to follow three simple steps.

Firstly, we have to make an effort to make time for our families. As a college student, we are constantly overwhelmed by homework and assignments. With this, we usually spend most of our time in front of the computer or laptop, isolated from our families. Furthermore, when we are not busy catching up with our work or completing our projects, we, being typical teenagers, prefer to hang out with our peers rather than spend the day with our families. Though I am not saying that it is wrong to go out with our friends, but there should be a balance between the time spent with peers and with our family. Even having a simple meal together could enhance the relationship between family members.

Secondly, what we talk about to our families is also a factor we should consider. When speaking to parents, teenagers often avoid sensitive subjects such as sexual intercourse. We teenagers are often embarrassed to speak up to find answers to related questions or too embarrassed to share our point of view, afraid that it might affect the way our parents treat us. However, having discussions about this could actually reduce the tendency of teenagers having unprotected sexual intercourse or unwanted pregnancies. Teenagers who are aware of Sexually Transmitted Diseases (STDs) are more likely to engage in protected sexual intercourse than those who are unaware of the potential risks of STDs.

Thirdly, we must make and effort to listen to our family members no matter how uninterested we are. As teenagers, we tend to think that we are high and mighty; that the rest do not matter. We should change that. We teenagers should open up and listen to our parents, our siblings. Listen to what they have to express and say. Why do they always say that parents are the ones who misunderstand their teenage children, but is never teenagers misunderstand their parents?

Therefore, not only teenagers, but also every other family member needs to make time to spend with family, talk to them and listen to what they have to say. Effective interaction between our family requires great effort but it all comes down to the bond we have with our families. Don't spend the rest of your life bickering with them; treasure every moment spent with them, let them know you love them, never take them for granted. One day we might just wake up only to find that we never had the chance to tell them that they were the best thing that has ever happened to us. 'Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted' (Paul Pearshall).


Written by,
Hooi Kit Wei