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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: epicure who wrote (62606)	5/18/2002 11:20:58 AM
From: Crocodile	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 71178

I think most children do not feel listened to. If you listen to almost ANY child, at any school, they will begin to tell you everything, for as long as you will listen. Either their capacity for telling things to adults is infinite, or most adults don't talk and listen to children. I think you're quite right about this. I've noticed much the same thing over the years. I don't have children, but I have noticed that, if you actually sit and listen to them, most will tell you all kinds of amazing and interesting things... even the shy, quiet ones. I'm very conscious of "listening" and make a point of doing so, especially with children. When I was growing up, I really didn't have a chance to talk very much... not particularly through anyone's fault. My father was up working on the DEW line in northern Canada on and off for a few years and that coincided with the birth of my two younger brothers, so my mother was kept busy caring for them. I think I spent most of my first few years talking to my dog and other animals around our place. Which, incidentally, probably explains quite a lot. (o: Anyhow, I do think it's important to make a point of really listening to people, but I realize how rarely that occurs. I'm very observant of people...chalk that up to being an artist, so that's what I "do", but I've noticed how often people cut other people off when they're talking, or change the subject so abruptly that you know they never listened to the last few sentences that were spoken. I believe this may be becoming habitual in our society as people seem more interested in talking to cellphones or watching television. Kind of makes you feel unimportant when you can't even compete with a TV sitcom rerun when trying to speak to someone for 30 seconds. BTW, I saw something funny recently..a film short about the use of cellphones as more of an individual form of performance art than as a mode of communication.. very funny and probably true, judging by some of the "performances" I've seen in grocery store produce departments and other similar venues. In any case, if you think of the last century when conversation was considered an art and people went for long walks while talking.. think of any British novel written around 1880-1910.. everyone was always "going for an evening walk and conversation." In many ways, the art of interaction has been supplanted by the one-way push of the media. Fortunately, it seems that email and other interactive forms of writing have restored the art of correspondence. I wonder what it would take to get people conversing in a more meaningful way?

To: epicure who wrote (62606)	5/18/2002 3:19:37 PM
From: The Philosopher	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

If you listen to almost ANY child, at any school, they will begin to tell you everything, for as long as you will listen. Are you old enough to remember the TV show, I think with Art Linkletter, "Kids Say the Dardnest Things"? Basically, he each week he gathered a bunch of kids, I would guess usually about 4 to 10, and let them talk. I assume it was highly edited, because I'm sure lots of it would have been totally boring, warm-up, etc. But some of it was an absolute riot. One of his favorite questions was "what did your mommy tell you not to talk about on the show?" Talk about some red faces! I could never understant, though, why parents would ever let their kids go on the show. Did the LIKE their kids saying "Mommy told me not to talk about the time I went in their bedroom and they were doing this funny thing where . . ."