What Kids To Say Could Save A Life - edited

How often have you seen a child trying to get an adult's attention, and the adult is telling the child not to interrupt, wait for their turn to speak, etc?  It happened to me many a time as a child, I hear other parents do it constantly, and I admit, when my children are ranting on and on about how the wheels on their toy car go around when they push it whilst I'm trying to talk on the phone with my financial adviser about having enough money in my account to pay for the car rego, I do it too.  We do have to teach our children that interrupting is rude and they should not take over conversations, but there has to be a fair chance for them to speak as well.

When visiting a friend, who was determined to make sure I knew all the in's and out's and whereabouts of local gossip, her daughter came running in looking somewhat frantic and tried to interrupt.  As usual, her mother scolded her about interrupting and continued on with her boring and tedious gossip.  The little girl looked like she was about to totally freak out, so I took an opportunity to get some aural relief and hear something more interesting.  I politely interrupted my friend and asked the child what was wrong.  When she explained that her little brother was playing out the back with a snake, the whole situation changed.  Then the mother tried to scold the poor kid for not saying something sooner!  I prioritized the younger child's safety over the elder one's moral, and ran out the back to rescue the little brother and get him to hospital.  He was fine, but it could have been really bad.

When a child interrupts me now, I take a quick second to consider the likelyhood that what they have to say may be genuinely important.  Where have they been, what have they been doing, what could they have witnessed, and is there even a remote chance that what they are about to say is important?  Of course, however trivial it may seem to us, everything a child has to say is very important to them, and we should always take a suitable moment to let them have their say.  We should teach them when it is okay to interrupt and when it isn't, and if a child looks like they are about to lose the plot if we don't give them the chance to say something, we should drop everything to hear them out, because what kids have to say could save a life.