Listen Slowly - The Key to Communication With Your Kids

There is a reason God gave us two ears - because one of these days we would be parents!

The most important skill you can develop as a parent is the ability to listen to your kids. Not so you can give them everything they want but so you can understand what they need.

When my oldest son was about 4 years old he came crashing in to my study wanting something. I was busy preparing for a test (this was my first year at Bible College... important stuff right?). He started to rattle off what he wanted. I half heartedly nodded in his direction. He stopped and eagerly patted my leg, "But Daddy" he began again, "I really... "

I cut him off; "I know son, I'm listening."

"Yeah Daddy, but could you listen this time a little slower?"

It was a good lesson for this dad because he was four. Had he been 14 he would have just walked away. I would have never known.

Love demands that we "listen a little slower!"

Listening slower involves listening at the pace your child is talking. Hearing what they are saying at the speed they are saying, not the speed you want to hear it. If you are saying to yourself; "just get to the point" you aren't really listening. Pace is an important part of communication. Rushing to get to the point makes the communication about the words and not your child. If you're trying to rush to the point you may miss the point completely.

It means to listen deliberately. Giving attention to the words being spoken and the manner in which they are spoken. Listening for more than the sound being made. When you listen deliberately you are hearing the nuances that make communication between parent and child so important.

It means to listen devotedly. You communicate to your child how devoted you are to them by the way you listen to them. Making a request of parent is a difficult task for some kids. The fact that they have taken the time to ask (this becomes a bigger issue as they get older) usually indicates that a relationship exists.

A relationship is required for the courage necessary for conversation. It really doesn't matter the age of the child. The fact that they asked means they think there is a relationship between the two of you. Taking a moment to listen reinforces that relationship.

Making a point to a parent isn't easy either. They have to work up the nerve to say what they want. Your ability to listen devotedly puts them in a proper frame of mind. Then you will hear what you really need to hear.

You can't give them everything they ask for, but you can give them your attention. Nothing in the world will do more to increase their self-worth than simply listening to them. Most of the time just listening is all that they need. That you listen is usually more important than the topic itself.

One of the most important skills you can have is the ability to listen. Maybe the next time your child is talking you can "listen a little slower... "

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Top Seven DIY Interior Wall Painting Tips

Let your talent shine on your interior wall paints and give your aesthetic and artistic imagination a reality. Paint your rooms, walls, house or workspace exactly the way you like it. Painting is a work of creativity & art, an aggregation of a perfect colour combination and requires some skills. When your house or workspace; both interior and exterior, require a painting you can call a professional and specialist painting company or can Do It Yourself (DIY). Majority of the people like to rely on a professional company for decoration and painting of their houses, offices or labs that requires a large volume of work to be done. In fact there are some distinguished advantages of engaging a professional service provider who has the reputation and skill of quality workmanship, project management, and customer service. But when planning to paint a living room, study room or work place, people sometimes want to rely on their own preference and creativity. But painting the interior walls can sometime become harder than you have ever imagined. Following are some tips and advices for your happy wall painting:

Preparation

Before you start painting the walls, make sure the surface is neat and has sufficient spaces. Wash the walls and wait until they get dried. Arrange all the brushes, rollers, paint containers and other necessary tools according to the size, type and colours so that they become handy when needed.

Covering the Furniture

Make the unnecessary objects separated and cover them. You can use old newspapers, masking tape or plastic wrapping sheets to cover the objects that you are not painting. Start painting from the edge and then move to the border and then finally finish your first round. When you are done with the whole area, concentrate on the finishing touch.

Decision

Your decision of what kind of paint you will apply to the walls and what kind of vapours are acceptable for you to breathe-in should be finalised by now. While deciding a colour, emphasise on the lighting, furniture type and exterior painting as well. A good choice of painting can be to use semi-glossy colours on the background.

Right Tools

Perfect paint brushes and rollers can make your painting work praiseworthy and the reverse is true as well. The paint brushes and rollers are your most important tools to get the desired output. Do not dip the brush bristle completely on the paint as it will cause scattered paints around the surface. Use paintbrush instead of paint roller when you paint edge of the wall or a small area.

Research

To make your paining look natural and eye-friendly use creative tones of similar colours. Perfect blending of colours with same shade and different intensity help create aesthetic and sophisticated impression. A distinguished appearance on your wall can be achieved with two or three harmonious colours, and an accent hue of either black or white. Brighter hue conceives a bold and contrasting look. Besides, you can surf the internet to finalise the colour pattern, gradient effects and colour mix. Go though the beautifully painted walls -gallery to mimic an excellent painting style.

Be creative

While painting the interior walls, you should be creative. Break the traditional painting style. Designing a couple of shapes on the wall will help you avoid the monotonous and common looks. Special paints are available for attaining the distinguished look and style. Make sure to check that sort of painting visually in the paint store.

Double Coating

People prefer double coatings since they offer a brighter look on the wall. Besides, you can cover the wall properly, and even can get some texture and three-dimensional appearance. Interior wall painting requires some special care and attention as it will expose your aesthetic preferences to others. Your house or working place tells a lot about you and specifically the interior wall reflects your ego, characteristics and preferences, and creativity even if you had nothing to do with the paining project. Never let your interior painting go wrong with the unplanned and abrupt choices. Take control of it and let your surrounding feel your admirable creative-preferences.

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Website Traffic Ideas - Using Affiliate Commissions To Drive Sales And Traffic To Your Website

Many website designers and business owners overlook a simple and effective method for driving website traffic to their companies. Which is a shame to be honest. However, the process of having an affiliate program can work wonders in any industry and any niche. If you do not have an affiliate program established, consider getting one started.

What are affiliate and why pay them commissions?

An affiliate is simply a person who is willing to promote your business, services or products. The reason you should pay them a commission is because they deserve to be paid, and you should not want something for nothing. Affiliates can be anyone. They are often other businesses that might already use or implement your products. A good example might be an electrician who always uses your brand of electrical supplies, or a businessman who is always drinking your brand of coffee. They like your products, why not pay them to spread the word?

Why should I use affiliates?

While you are just one person, an affiliate program can add thousands of potential sales people to your sales force. In fact, affiliates can be a driving force in the expansion and income levels of your business. This is a force multiplier and can leverage the masses of people to help spread your products or services. Many people will willingly refer products they believe in enough to use daily, however they also could use some extra cash in their pockets.

How does the affiliates commission affect traffic?

Affiliates promote your products. There could be any number of ways in which they might do this. Some affiliates will place your logo and website name on their vehicle. Others may promote your website in their own business literature. Others might drive full-fledged traffic campaigns to your website. It will often depend on your market and your products. There are also thing you can do to increase their efforts. The biggest impact most affiliates consider is going to be the commissions. Set a low commission on a high-priced product and you might not see any traffic. Set a higher priced commission and watch flood of traffic come in as affiliates earn more income.

But won't I lose money paying affiliates commissions?

Affiliates are earning their commissions based on the sales they generate. You should know how much value each customer holds for your business. Then pay out your commissions based on what you are willing to spend to gain each customer. The more traffic the affiliates generate, the more likely you gain new customers and the more income your affiliate earns through the commission program.

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Golf Swing Made Easy - Information on How to Lengthen Your Drive and Cut Your Handicap

I've just come across a terrific book by David Nevogt , also known as 'The Golf Swing Guru' where he guarantees to lengthen your drive and cut your handicap by 7 to 12 strokes in just 2 weeks.

As a dedicated golfer, hitting off 27 on a good day! , I figure anything that can do that has got to be worth getting - even if it's only half as good as everyone says.

Some of the questions posed in this book are:- 1. Is your golf swing is providing you with the results you need to compete? 2. Are you throwing strokes away by topping, slicing or hooking the ball? 3. How many penalty strokes do you typically have during a round?

And in my case the answers are:- 1. No 2. Yes 3. Too many

How about you?

Some interesting golf facts:- Did you know there are 27 Million golfers in the world? And did you know that the average gross score is 107 ?? And less than 20% ever get a handicap under 27.

Would you like to get your handicap down to a number you'd be able to brag about?

This book explains in simple terms how you can lower your score every time you play.

And it stresses that it's your golf swing that drives your score, not your clubs or the ball you play. As David says, that is the truth in simple terms.

It seems to work though. So far in 2006 people from 16 different countries have been helped by having their swing problems fixed. And as we all know, if you fix that problem and build an easy repeatable swing all the other good stuff can be built on more easily.

Some indication of David's success can be seen from the fact that "The Simple Golf Swing" has helped 7,987 golfers during the past 2 years. This system is rated the #1 golf instruction system on the Internet and the reason is quite simple - it's because it works.

I'm looking forward to seeing the results David's going to get with my really ugly swing! I'll let you know how it goes.

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Must Have: Car Insurance Policy Extras

New cars aren't getting any cheaper, and when you borrow or save enough to buy a new car, you want it to last a long time. It's an investment after all. As a result, a number of purchasers of new cars decide to outfit them with the most detailed forms of car insurance they can buy. Alternatively, some people rely on their cars for everything on a daily basis and simply can't afford to be without their cars or alternate means of transportation.

Comprehensive car insurance policies are designed to offer peace of mind for people who want to protect their cars and for people who rely on their cars every day. Here are 5 comprehensive car insurance policy extras that you should have thrown in when you decide to purchase a new comprehensive car insurance policy. The five extras to include are replacement car keys, car content coverage, windscreen cover, courtesy cars, and free roadside transportation.

1. Replacement car keys

If you've ever locked your keys out of your car, you know what a hassle it can be and how much stress it can quickly add to your day. If you don't have a spare set somewhere close at hand or know someone who does, your only options become trying to pick the lock yourself, which rarely works unless you know what you're doing, or calling the local authorities or a locksmith to help you.

The police might not be available or might not have the tools, and locksmiths cost far more than most people want to pay. As a result, it's worth including this particular extra over just about any other when it comes to comprehensive car insurance coverage, as it's just too easy to find yourself stranded due to a split second mistake like locking yourself out of your car.

2. Car content coverage

While it would be nice not to have to worry about protecting the things inside your car, the truth is that there are people who will do what they can to rob you if they happen to pass your vehicle. There are all sorts of things a burglar could covet, including clothing, CDs, mp3 players, and cell phones. While it isn't always possible to keep people from taking things that don't belong to them, you can protect yourself by investing in insurance that will help you replace your valuables if they are stolen.

3. Windscreen repair

Windscreens are surprisingly delicate pieces of machinery. While windscreens typically will not shatter if they are hit by debris, they can certainly develop hairline cracks that can make it difficult to see at best and quite dangerous in the worst case scenario. Windshields are also expensive to replace or repair, which is why it makes sense to throw windscreen repair in as an extra when you decide to buy comprehensive car insurance coverage.

4. Courtesy cars

No matter how good one's driving skills, maintenance habits, or mechanic is, it's a fact of life that one day or another, your car will probably eventually break down, leaving you without anything to drive until it has been fixed. Investing in a courtesy car extra in your comprehensive car insurance cover can keep you from being stranded without a car while you wait for your main vehicle to be repaired. This is an essential element of cover for people who use their cars on a daily basis for work.

5. Free roadside transportation

Finally, while you can't always prevent your car breaking down, you can invest in cover to give you free transportation to the nearest garage or to your home so you can start putting your day back together if your car breaks down.

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Why Should You Need an Auto Insurance Agent?

Nowadays, finding an auto insurance agent is not that easy. There are strategies that one must follow for you to get the best agent. This article will guide you on the ways to getting the best agent for your business. When an accident happens to you the consequences can be so far-reaching and in it will be worse if you don't have insurance. Insurance normally ensures that coverage is built around, thus protecting and compensating for accidents stricken individuals. Finding a reliable agent will help you to finding the best insurance quotes for your company.

So how do you get the best auto insurance quote? The easiest way for you to find auto insurance quotes is by visiting the websites of different insurance companies. They are available online and it won't be an issue for you finding their quotes. Insurance companies provide a special department that deals with the problems that are faced by customers when claiming for their cover. Once you visit their company online you will get the best services that will be of benefit to you. The benefits of using this online company are numerous but the chief among them is the cost. You will be able to get a cheap quote online as opposed to the offline insurance companies.

Online providers also do have more streamlined operations that are more efficient. This means you could have the best auto insurance quote. The guidelines about cost saving is very important since the economy is recessing a lot. But the actual costs usually fluctuate. The recommended thing is to take action as fast as you can so that you can save big when using the insurance policies.

Though it is expensive to pay for these type insurance companies, it is worth because once you get an accident, you will be compensated fully. So as a smart individual you should ensure that your asset is insured, this will help you to be compensated once you lose the property. Also when choosing the insurance companies you have to go through their policies very well so as to familiarize yourself with the requirements of each insurance company.

Lastly you have to get the auto insurance agent that will help you to know the different rates that insurance companies offer. An agent that has experience is most preferred since he can guide you to getting the best quotes that can suit your company.

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