Be a good listener.

Heed this parenting tip!

Your child needs and deserves time when they are allowed to express feelings, share an experience or even explain a bad decision from beginning to end without interruption from you.

My favorite time to do this was when my kids were preschoolers. It seems all preschoolers do it because I still enjoy doing it with my daycare kids. After they’ve spent some quality time drawing a picture, sit down and ask them to tell you about their picture. Do not guess what they drew, because if you are wrong, you will hurt their feelings. Simply ask them to tell you about the picture. I love how the kid’s voice will change to a different level and they tell the story about the picture.

As your children enters school, give them time when they get home after school or time when you get home from work to tell you about their day. Don't interject with comments about what they should have done or telling them what they did was wrong. Just listen, from beginning to end.

When you listen to them as a preschooler and still listen to them when they are school-age, they will be used to you listening to them when they become a teenager. Don't give your teenager negative feedback every time they talk to you or they will quit talking.

When you have a teenager willing to talk to you, be sure you can listen. It’s the perfect time to find out what’s happening with their friends, if drugs or alcohol have been a part of any decisions made, if there is an interest in the opposite sex, etc.

Open a line of communication with your child as soon as they're old enough to communicate back. It takes work, but keep that line open all the time so that you still have it in the most crucial teen-age years.