Get Your Kids To Like Being Around You (3 Ways)

The star of today’s episode (besides you & me, of course :-)) is the timeless Little Black Dress (LBD). The secret behind its huge success will help you get your kids of any age to WANT to be around you.

But let’s talk pre-teens and teenagers for a moment. If you’ve already bought into the convention that they keep to themselves and don’t talk much, and that you need to pluck your words with tweezers around them, I invite you to take another look.

It’s enough to look at their interactions with their peers to realize that it’s not entirely true: they text, email, and talk on the phone for hours every day. They experience lots of action and excitement in school—friendships that break up, gossiping, exchanging ideas with their friends… and according to a research done in 2014, seven out of ten 12-15 year-old kids who go online have a social media profile.

Let’s face it: the problem is not that that they don’t want to talk or socialize. The problem might be that they don’t want to talk with US. We, the parents, are not fun anymore, we’re boring, and our hair is graying.

There’s no nicer way to say it: There are—and there will be—times when our kids think we’re just bland or irrelevant (unless they need cash). Good for wrapping fish.

Now, take a look at the LBD. It should have been really old news by now and it’s not.

So why should you?

Today I will share with you three different ways to bring the fun back to parenting when “fun” is just a faint memory, as it was for me until about 3 years ago.

‘Cause if your kids find things to be uninteresting at home, chances are that you’re not enjoying the ride so much, either. 

And I’ve noticed that being more true to myself around my children, also gave legitimacy for them to expose more of who they are.

Now, there’s a little balancing act involved here, so watch this video to see how I learned from the timeless Little Black Dress how to do things differently enough to shine at home, but without having to reinvent yourself. 

Make yourself a happy week,

Warm blessings,

P.S. This is a special episode in honor of Purim, officially the happiest holiday on the Hebrew calendar. The costumes we choose to wear on Purim are more often than not a reflection of an internal quality that we possess. Today’s episode is, also, all about letting the different parts in you come to light.