We’ve had a surprising number of groups of Canada Geese flying overhead the past few days and boy are they noisy. It’s amazing how much honking they do as they fly. Conventional wisdom is that they’re encouraging the leader to keep going. Just for kicks I looked it up, and found this at the Birder’s World web site.

Nearly all songbird species make frequent contact calls when migrating at night, however. They tend to fly in loose groups as opposed to cohesive flocks, so they use contact calls to communicate with others of the same species and to stay on course.

Whether they’re honking for encouragement or coordination, the contact calls are an important feature of the birds’ journey. This got me to thinking about parents and children, and the importance of contact and communication in that relationship. In my case, building trust has been a major theme of late. The more I work on clear communication with the boys, the more we seem to be becoming a team. It’s slow but the progress is there.

photo credit: tao_zhyn

What about you? In what area do you need to communicate more clearly with your children? Are you sending out the contact calls necessary to keep your flock on track? Are they calling back to you?

Have you honked at your children lately?

Tags: communication, loving home, Parenting