How Lego can help you reconnect with your teenage kids.

Here's how Lego can be used to reconnect with your kids even if you have a demanding job.

There are times when as a parent you don't find a healthy way to deal with challenges with your childrenand you don't decide to share what is happening to you because you think it only happens to you.

I have been working for years with managers, entrepreneurs and professionals with high responsibility and professional dedication. In the first session I always propose a "radar" activity that allows them to identify how the important areas of their life are working.

It is an activity that makes it easier to observe the overall level of balance. It also helps to make a brief diagnosis to see how and where we are putting our energy.

The energy of managers

In many occasions, people with high professional responsibility devote most of their energy to work-related tasks.. This is normal.

However, over the years and after many conversations, I have detected that some of the major problems that most condition the lives of these professionals are related to the family area. are related to the family area.

Intervening from a family perspective

Time and energy are limited, and this often means that the family area does not get all the attention it needs. The next step: criticizing yourself and feeling guilty for not doing better with your children.

When the children are young, it seems that this deficit of dedication to the family is not transcendental; however, when the children reach a pre-adolescent age, they begin to appear. some indicators to which we should pay attention.

Adolescence has a bad press. Socially this stage is usually seen as a complicated period and in many occasions we talk about this period with prejudices. I am a parent of a large family and I know well what happens when children go through this stage of discovery, change and need for independence. It is a challenging stage for all the members of the family and many questions arise and many questions arise for which we do not always have the answers.

It is also true that those people with a high professional dedication, after an exhausting working day, do not have the necessary energy and clairvoyance to face the challenges that arise in the family coexistence with adolescent children.

Time and energy

To make all areas of our life compatible implies attention and dedication. If you don't find that time and don't pay the necessary attention, little by little, a gap in communication, presence a gap in communication, presence, support. An increasing distance with the children when they become teenagers that leads us to lose that wonderful bond that existed.

Some of my clients, when we inquire into the subject, often ask me: "And now how do I do it? Now how do I recover the starting point? What can I do to regain closeness, trust and proximity? Sometimes these questions come up many years later and the feeling of guilt invades us.

There are no magic recipes. The first and most important thing is to start spending some quality time that allows us to regain the closeness that brings us closer to each other. to recover the proximity that brings us closer to communication.. The next step is to encourage a sincere listening that allows the deepest needs and a sense of presence to emerge. This can be learned and exercised.

Why Lego?

The Lego pieces allow us to open a channel of communication with the five senses which enhances a generous listening..

When we work intentionally with this methodology, mind and hands connect to build our thinking and be able to explain it more clearly. Telling a story, telling my story, brings me closer to others and increases the level of understanding and empathy. Teenagers also love stories.

When I work in Family Coaching sessions with the Lego pieces, we play in a guided way and get to align family values and gently identify the toxins that prevent good communication based on respect and trust.

Family Coaching with Lego is based on systemic coaching and, therefore, although the adolescent is the main protagonist and the focus of the process, we also work with the parents as a fundamental part of the family system.

Expressing emotions cannot be forbidden in the family.. Recognizing emotions, understanding what is going on inside people, helping to manage different situations, is a task that as parents we should not delegate. Normalize and understand to improve relationships.

In family relationships, the most important thing is to strengthen ties to also enhance parental leadership and get our children to trust.

Trust and commitment just like in the company!