The Adults Are Talking

I've been the third wheel before with people my own age.  I bet it's not much fun being a kid when the parents have friends around.  We had a friend over tonight, so I tried to include our kids more in the conversation.  It taught me a few things.  First, it takes a little longer for a child to articulate thoughts than it does for adults.  They are still learning the language so they take great care to construct their thoughts.  Second, adults have a hard time waiting for them to finish.  We often finish their sentences for them.  Or, we are thinking of what to say next while they are still talking.  Sadly, because we also have a better grasp of the language, we are also much less careful with what we say.  Third, if you give them the time they need to say what they need to say, they can hold their own pretty well in conversation with adults.  They grow confident as we take the time to listen because they can see that what they have to say is important to us.  But our natural impatience often yields the opposite result.