Improving Family Communication-Does Your Family Like the Way You Communicate? Take a Test.

When it comes to learning to communicate, family is the school room. The way we communicate with our children and our spouses, teaches our children how to communicate. If we sulk and pout, raise our voices, ignore and hold grudges, we are teaching our children that that is the way to do things. Which sets them up for trouble as they get older. They will take those same bad habits into their future relationships.

But...if we work to model healthy communication, listen more than we talk, rarely use sarcasm and insults, say what we mean, practice empathy, and ask questions when we have them, we send our children out with valuable tools to use in every area of their lives.

The funny thing is, how we see ourselves communicating, is not always the same way our family sees things. Time to take a step back, be honest with ourselves and with one another, and take a little communication inventory, to see how well things are going in our homes.

Take a few minutes to answer the following questions. Then, cover up your answers and have your family answer the same questions about you. (You can print the inventory right from this post.) Obviously you want to answer true to all of them, and you want your family to do the same. But chances are, that won't happen. Be open to the constructive criticism and evaluate what each person in the family can do better.

You will love what an activity like this can do for your family. Let me know how it goes!