I have a very bad habit. I interrupt people. During conversations I tend to jump right in rather than wait for the other person to actually finish their thoughts.
It’s very rude and I hate it about myself. But sometimes I just can’t help it. I am working on it, though. Really.
There are times when I don’t interrupt so much to add my own two cents so much as to try and anticipate the other person’s thoughts.
Which, yes, still very irritating and rude.
Olivia, though, has helped me with this quite a bit lately.
See, she needs time to process her thoughts. When she’s talking to you, she needs to take her time to get it all out into words. And as I converse with her, I stop and listen, taking it in, letting her finishing, letting her figure it out.
I almost feel like I was given the gift of Olivia to help me learn a little patience, a little humility. I can’t read other people’s minds. I can’t always anticipate what they’re going to say and it’s rude to even try.
And I need to wait my turn during conversations. I need to let the topic progress naturally rather than try and force it with my interruptions and finishing of other’s sentences.
Olivia needs to practice her give and take conversational skills and I need to do the same. She needs me to give her time and I need to learn to give everyone, not just Olivia, time to finish their thoughts.
This girl has taught me so much over the year. I have a feeling the lessons are far from over.
A mom, a dad and two daughters. We're living ordinary lives with a twist of 5p- (Cri du Chat) for spice. But we're about so much more than our younger daughter's genetic diagnosis.
2 comments:
I have a friend who likes to double talk. He tries to anticipate what I'm going to say, then say it with me. It's very odd, especially when he's wrong. But I love him so I just go with it. And honestly, I've never noticed this trait of yours. But I love you too so if I did I would just go with it.
I have this same problem, which I too am working on. And Janine, with her 8-10 seconds of "reaction time" has only highlighted my need for patience and letting people finish their thoughts. This is only one area where she has made me better than I ever could have become on my own. When parents of special needs kids say, "He/she teaches me so much!", I know it sounds like a cliche to anyone not intimately acquainted with this phenomenon, but it is absolutely true!
Post a Comment