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Talking with Teens & Children
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| Mother | 79% | 527 votes | Total: 671 votes | |
| Father | 21% | 144 votes |
Mother
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Add to FavoritesThere is a huge difference in the styles of communication between men and woman whether or not they be a mother or father. It has long been known that women are not only better at communicating but also have have more affective communication skills.
Taking this into consideration I would have to say that it is easier for a child to communicate with their mother than their father. I can only think of one subject where a child would seek out a parent of the same sex if they had questions or needed to discuss something and that would have to do with sex.
The magazine, Scientific America has recently published new findings that show women to have higher levels of activity in the language center of their brain than males therefore, making them far better in language skills. However, communicating with another whether male or female has much more to do with who the child has a stronger relationship with since there is a big difference in talking verses communication.
It is estimated that women on average speak 7,000 words per day while men speak only 2,000 words on average per day. It is understandable that many jokes have arisen over the years around this study including men insisting that this is because women tend to repeat everything they say but using this same study one could reason that in order to communicate easily there has to be a give and take conversation.
Since mothers are usually the ones who have a closer physical and emotional connection to the child simply because they are the ones who have spent more time with the child and began communicating with the child sometimes even non verbally since birth, it makes sense that mothers are much more affective at communicating with their child.
Just imagine the young infant who signals a need through a cry and the mother who immediately knows the child wants a bottle or needs a diaper change. It's the mother who knows almost instinctively when their child is getting sick or is perhaps just cranky and needs a nap.
Communication between a mother and child builds and becomes stronger as the child becomes older and is able to communicate back through words but it is that basic non verbal communication that builds the trust needed to affectively communicate with the parent as the child matures into teen and early adulthood.
When women communicate with their children there is often more of a give and take to the conversation, an openness and sharing , something that men are just not very affective or comfortable doing. Men though when communicating with their children can often times be much better listeners than women. There is a big difference though between listening and communicating.
Learn more about this author, Sharon Meyer.
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Father
For me I have always found it to be much easier to communicate with my father on just about every issue a child/daughter can have. Don't get me wrong, my mother was always there for me and loved me with all of her heart but it just always appeared that my father was much more open minded about everything including life in general. My mother was not near as open minded and believed that what she had to say was law and there was no changing her mind. My father on the other hand would sit back, listen, possibly ask a few questions and then he would either tell you his opinion without passing judgement or criticizing or he would tell you to do what you think is the right thing to do and that no matter what he would be there for you. He believed that there comes a time in which you need to let your children learn from their own mistakes and that is just what he did.
My mother, now that was a completely different situation, she proclaimed to have experienced all of the same or similar situations and would let you know that she didn't believe you were making the right choices and try and dictate how you should handle the situation and your life. She was the type of person who wanted to be in control over her children even well into their adulthood. If she wasn't the one you talked your problems out with or came to for advice she would get highly upset and even offended at times. She always wanted and thrived on the control of every situation. Up until the time I turned 41 she continued to try and control my life, dictating what choices I should make, how I should raise my child and so on. At the age of 41 I made it very clear to her that I was no longer her baby and that now I am an adult and raising my own child as she had done with all of is kids and that I hoped she would respect my opinions and decisions with and involving the raising of my own child rather than to try and control it all.
I think the biggest difference between a mother and a father is that women tend to have a stronger maternal instinct than men and it tends to cause many of them to try everything within their powers to control the lives of their children whereas fathers tend to be more laid back and calm, they tend to not let things get to them like we as women/mothers do.
Learn more about this author, Dawn R. Babcook.
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