The following quote was posted on Facebook this morning by Laurie Couture, and I’ve been thinking about it all day:

Often I succeed at this, but I know there are many times I that I don’t.   It is so easy to get distracted, especially when I’m tired or thinking about all the things piling up on my to do list.   Do I really want to hear Ben give me another rundown of why the clone army is defeating the droids?   In long and agonizing detail?   Not if I think of it that way, no.  But when I remember that his stories come from a place of imagination that is live and real and fully engaging for him, I can listen with interest and enjoy the fact that he wants me to enter his magic world.

Catherine Wallace is so right.  To them it is all big stuff.  Perhaps I’ll print this quote out and tape it to the back of my hand so that I see it every time I am tempted to check my watch while one of my kids is talking.

Listening is a skill at which we could probably all use a little more practice, especially when it comes to our kids.