In the middle of her tearful struggles with slow reading and processing, my daughter seemed delighted when I “confided” to her that I’ve always needed to read material several times and say it in my head just to process the meaning—unless I’m super-interested in the content. Since my own career is completely based on my literacy, it was the beginning of her belief that she could like reading and would someday feel good at it. Yay!
Really often now, I find myself coaching my kids on ways to temper and channel their emotional reactions, control their impulses and change their locus of attribution when hypersensitive. These are big, daily challenges for them both, and because they were huge problems for me growing up, I’m the only one who really “gets” them. I feel their internal torment, understand why they act out when no one else does, and can talk to them with insight and the greatest of empathy. That gives me credibility with them, and (mostly) they listen. You know—as long as I keep it concise and fairly interesting.