Bridging the Gap between Parents and Children

The Parents Zone, Web Reprint, adapted

Generation means all human beings born and living around the same time; also
known as coevals. When there is a significant gap of time between two coevals,
it is defined as “generation gap.”

When we compare two generations and when there is a considerable difference in
the lifestyles, habits, likes, and dislikes of the people belonging to these two separate
times, problems due to age gap arise. It is no secret that this gap is widening rapidly.

More and more parents and their offspring agree that they just can’t understand
each other. This lack of understanding of social, moral, political, musical, or religious
opinions leads to lack of acceptance, which is one of the primary reasons why
families break.

Here are a few tips for parents to help bridge this ever-widening gap:

1. Communicate constantly. It is simply a fact that communication plays an
important role in bridging gaps between not only parents and children, but also
in every relationship that we can think of. When we communicate respectfully
with our children, we are letting them know that we are willing to do all it takes
to lessen the age gap and understand things from their point of view.

2. Be open minded. Open mindedness means widening our horizons. When we widen our horizons and we open the doors and windows of our heart, we look at things with a new perspective. This helps us understand why what is being said is actually said. This is very important if we want to understand our children’s priorities and habits.

3. Learn to accept. Trying to understand our children’s world is no mean task. It takes a lot of effort to understand the younger generation. We have to accept first that we lived in a different world. For us, that was an ideal world, with less corruption, hypocrisy, cheating, and every bad thing we see so much increased now. Then, we will have to accept today’s times too, especially the fact that not everything is that bad, and make the effort to understand and accept our children’s perspectives and priorities. That is a big step towards bridging the generation gap.

4. Listen and understand. We as parents sometimes tend to talk too idealistic. We will have to stop that, and we will have to learn to listen, and then to understand. Giving lectures is not at all a good idea.

5. Silence is golden sometimes. Yes, sometimes we have to learn to be silent too. We have to let our children voice their opinions and listen to what they are saying, without interrupting them.

In conclusion, the reality of a generation gap is only in terms of age. If we set our egos aside and look at things from an entirely different perspective, we can minimize the gap between our children and us. This does not mean we should not do what we need to do as parents. It just means we become a little more understanding and accepting of what our children see as “their world.”

Courtesy of Motivated magazine. Used with permission.