Growing up with two older sisters, a younger sister and two parents working full time meant we had a busy household. Even though they were busier than busy, my parents held strong to an all important family rule —supper time was sacred.

There were no distractions while we ate and we all ate together. This was not always fun to follow and most of the time we were annoyed that our parents made us. Our phone used to ring all the time because the four of us loved to talk on the phone. Meal times were . . .

the only times in our home when the phone stayed silent — it was taken off the hook. These days it is not quite so easy to disconnect. I now realize the method to their madness helped keep us connected, boy were they smarter than I gave them credit for at the time.

At supper time, we would all take a moment to tell something that had happened to us that day. It could’ve been good, bad, sad, a funny moment we witnessed, how we did on a test, other times we said a lot by saying nothing — and showed just how angry we were in the moment. Didn’t this little bit of time give our parents so much information? It showed them how we were all feeling, who needed a chat after supper, who needed a few extra minutes with them before bed, who was happy.

I can’t imagine navigating four girls as a parent — two and I’ve got enough gray hair already and they haven’t even hit the teenage years. This must’ve been a good strategy for my parents, we still communicate with our parents daily.

In today’s world I worry that families don’t take enough time to just connect with each other. We have so many distractions that aren’t as easily disconnected as they use to be. We are all obsessed with being available every single moment whether it be socially, for our job or simply out of boredom so we have everything at our finger tips all of the time.

When I think back to being forced to listen to each other, I realize that this gave each of us a sure time that we would be listened too, whether we felt we needed it or not, something we may not remember our kids need. Our kids need the opportunity to talk about things they see at school, things that make them happy, things that have them worried. Now more than ever these little beings need to be heard.

Now, as a parent I break my head with worry all the time. Is anything happening at school? How’s school going? Are we too busy to get good time in to chat every day? What am I missing? When my kids were little and we spent all day together, I would listen to my kids rattle off everything we did when daddy came home. I loved hearing their perspective on how our day went, what really stood out to them and what made them upset. Now that I don’t get to see them all day I really value their words. I do my absolute best to stop and listen and take in all that each of them have to share. I hope that by doing this they will also tell me when things go wrong in their lives and that they’ll trust us when they really need to talk.

I often hear this phrase repeated — communication is key. Open lines of communication are what we need with our children as they get older. I hope that saving this time daily to hear their voice helps us along this road of parenthood. I hope they know their voice is valued in our home, every day.