Well, when I went to pick him up, I was all excited and asked:

‘Well, how did it go?’

‘It was okay’ he said smiling, knowing I wanted to hear all about it. I eventually got some blood from the stone and he told me about it in dribs and drabs, however he seemed to enjoy it and has made a few friends already which is always good.

My other son, who is in his 3rd year at high school is exactly the same and sometimes I can’t even get blood from that stone. I advised them that we have spent weeks worrying and feeling anxious for them and all we ask in return is a little information about their day at school. So I advise them to give a little more and not have my wife beat the hell out of them just to get a little info. My wife duly comes home, practically running in to see how they got on at school and thankfully they were a little more open.

I guess it’s just boys being boys, I remember being exactly the same and always wondered why my mum was so interested in my school activities. My niece, on the other hand, talks at 100 miles per hour and talks for hours.

here’s a few tips I have learned over the years about communicating with children:

37 Ways to communicate better with your children

1. Always be interested in their day, even if they don’t want to tell you anything.
2. Pay attention to them and make them feel as if they are the only person in the room when they speak to you.
3. Make time to sit down with them in a relaxed manner to allow them to open up more.
4. Sit down for family meals (One of the best decisions we made was to always make it a rule to all sit round the dinner table together).
5. Keep eye contact to show you are listening.
6. Don’t dismiss the little things they tell you about.
7. Keep close to them when they are talking, don’t have a conversation whilst you are in the kitchen and they are in their room.
8. Show them you love them and always tell them you love them.
9. Tell them you believe in them often.
10. Children are not your friends and letting them off with the small things could lead to bigger problems in the future.
11. Always listen to their side of the story if there are any arguments or rows going on.
12. Praise them with every single thing they do well.
13. Be as open and honest as possible with them about EVERYTHING.
14. If you have more than 1 child make time so you can spend time alone together, even if it’s driving to the shops.
15. Read between the lines. Kids have a way of telling you something without directly telling you.
16. Don’t interrupt children when they are trying to tell you something.
17. Ask their opinion on something that’s important to you and them.
18. Tell them about your day and encourage discussion.
19. Give them a hug at least 200 times per day
20. Always say please and thank you when speaking to your kids, they will develop manners this way.
21. Encourage them to voice their opinion on the big family decisions, like buying a house, a car etc.
22. Tell them stories of when you were younger, kids always want to hear this.
23. Play games with them as much as possible.
24. Step into their world for a bit and get to learn what they like.
25. Become a child for a day and just have a toy fight, pillow fight, wrestle, and do the silly things that kids do.
26. Respect their privacy, always knock.
27. Give them unexpected presents.
28. Let let go up the down escalator
29. Let them have their own style and find it themselves.
30. be proud of them ,even when they didn’t quite make but tried their best.
31. Just hold them, that little bit longer than you normally would.
32. Let them find their own hobbies and encourage them in finding them.
33. Stand back to let them them make their own mistakes, they’ll grow a lot quicker.
34.Take them to where you grew up and tell them about it.
35. Forgive them as they forgive you.
36. Don’t make them wear a jacket if they don’t want to even when it’s raining.
37. Just love them for the little individuals they are, just love them!

Is there anything else you would add to this list, why not leave a comment below.

We have to think the unspeakable before we can protect our children and there is no better place to try and hide than behind a telephone line or satellite dish with hundreds of miles separating us.

I was at a talk at my son’s school the other night and I am still amazed at how many parents don’t know what their children get up to on their computers. It’s not because we are not concerned about our children it’s because of the technology, we are scared of it and don’t have the inclination to learn about it: ‘it’s for the young’. Tell me this; if you had to learn how to use computers and the internet to save your child’s life, would you do it? That’s how dangerous the internet could be, so it’s better to learn as much as you can.

Here are 10 ways to keep your child safe online

1. The most important thing to do is talk with your children about safety online and how important it is for them to talk with you about anything that happens whilst on the internet. It is important for your children to understand that you are trying to protect them and talk with them about some things that have happened in real life to other children and how you want to prevent this happening to them. Advise your children that you don’t want to invade in their privacy but you will be keeping tabs on what they do online from now on.
2. Make sure you are the administrator on the computer and create another user account for your children which you will have control over. This means your children will be restricted as to what they can view and download.
3. The first thing to do is put a filter on what your children can and can’t access online and what type of sites they can view. Windows Vista has a parental control built in however there is other software out there which can help to keep children safe online, the most popular is ‘Net Nanny ‘.
4. Learn what your children are learning. Get to know sites like Bebo, Facebook, MySpace, and create a profile on them to get to know them better.
5. Learn how to use MSN messenger, AOL Messenger, Google talk etc. Insist that your children record their conversations so you can scan them at a later date. This sounds very intrusive but I would much rather keep my children safe and have them think I am being a pain. Learn how to record conversations in these messenger services and check on them weekly. You don’t need to read every detail of the conversation, you are there t protect, not to spy. I have advised my children they can still talk how they normally talk on these messenger services and they will not get into trouble, within agreeable limits of course.
6. Keep your child’s computer in a communal area within the house. If locked in a room there are unscrupulous people who can get your child to do something that they don’t want to if they know they are alone in a bedroom.
7. Remember that older children are curious about sex and relationships and the internet can be a safe way to explore this. If you find inappropriate content on the computer and it is not illegal and disturbing don’t worry too much. Try and remember what you were like as a teenager and how curious you were.
8. Check the sites your children are visiting by clicking on Control + H whilst in the browser they usually use. This will give you an idea about their surfing habits.
9. It’s not so common these days but make sure if your children enter chat rooms that they do not stumble in over 18’s cat lines. Also advise your children not to chat in the private rooms available on these sites, especially with people they do not know.
10. Know who to report any abuse that may happen on the internet. The first port of call is obviously the police if it is serious enough. However there are websites you can go to report abuse:

Virtual Global Task Force
Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre
DFES funded Parent’s Centre on Bullying
Internet Watch Foundation

Other sites you might be interested in:
http://safekids.com/
http://www.getnetwise.org/gnwtv/
http://www.kidsmart.org.uk/
http://www.netfamilynews.org/
http://www.parentscentre.gov.uk/usingcomputersandtheinternet/