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Publication #FAR1719

 

Talking with Your Child about School1

Eboni Baugh and Donna Davis2

Figure 1. 
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In a hurried world, keeping up with our children when we're trying to juggle marriage, jobs, possibly multiple children, and the many other challenges life can throw at us, we can feel overwhelmed at times. However, keeping lines of communication open with your children can be critical to how they handle the challenges they face, especially when they are in school.

Create opportunities to talk to your child about school, and listen to them! Allow them to vent and/or complain while giving compassionate feedback. Try to see school through their eyes and empathize by accepting their feelings, thoughts, and ideas of the situation and ignoring your own adult perception of the situation for the moment. And attempt to normalize their situation and what they are currently going through, when possible.

Check in with your children every day, before and after school. Talk over your child's fears and help them find ways to cope or overcome those fears. Also address possible challenges that your child may be facing at school before these become an issue. These issues may include bullying and peer pressure to engage in high-risk behaviors, such as drug and alcohol use and sexual activity. Talk with your child and his/her friends as a group, and as much as possible, be available and open for questions! Conversations are an important part of quality parent-child relationships, and those relationships, in turn, can help your children cope with many pressures they face at school.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/500.mp3

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/500.wav

References

Baugh, E. (2006, August.) Top 10 ways to talk your child about school. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from University of Florida, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences website: http://fycs.ifas.ufl.edu/news/2006/08/top-10-ways-to-talk-your-child-about.html.

Fogarty, K. Rooks-Weir, E., and Ferrer, M. (2006).Talking with your child (FCS2006). Gainesville, FL: Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Retrieved August 15, 2006 from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HE860.

Perkins, D.F., and Fogarty, K. (2005). Active listening: A communication tool (FCS2151). Gainesville, FL: Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Retrieved August 15, 2006 from http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/HE361.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR1719, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 500. Published January 2007. Reviewed March 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Eboni Baugh, assistant professor, and Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.