How Kids Get What They Want
Have you ever thought about how good children are at getting what they want? Children are constantly negotiating with us and this is sometimes impressively efficient.
Do you want to learn how to negotiate? Try using these five techniques that, as Alejandro Hernandez found, are commonly used by children to get what they want.
1. They ask a lot of questions
Children ask and adults assume. When a child gets a call, they don’t stop until they know the reason behind it. While they may be at peace with any answer they find plausible, they still keep asking.
Where children are constantly asking everything, adults pretend to know everything, for fear of appearing incompetent.
2. They know what they want and aren’t afraid to ask for it
Children are constantly asking for what they want. They know that the more they ask for it, the more likely they are to get what they want. If a kid wants a video game, he wants a video game and going to the park or eating an ice cream won’t change that at all.
Adults, on the other hand, tend to remain silent, almost as if we expect others to read our minds and know what we want. Sometimes, even when the other person finds out what’s going through our minds, we deny it for fear of appearing needy.
If we don’t tell people what we want, it’s hard to get it. Kids are amazingly passionate about this, as they have no shame when it comes to expressing their desires.
3. ‘No’ is not a valid answer and they never settle
For children, ‘no’ is the beginning of a negotiation, while for adults, this word means the end. Sometimes children even enjoy being told ‘no’; After all, negotiating can be a fun game.
Even if a child is given “no” for an answer hundreds of times a day, they very rarely give up. Children push us to the limit: they go on and on and on. Why? Because it works! This is how, little by little, kids get what they want, even if they were initially denied it.
4. They are very tenacious
How long until we get there? Will it take long? How long? I’m bored… are we there yet?
We’ve all heard this before. Children insist and do not give up, adults do not. In addition, contrary to what you might expect, children know that if they don’t get something, they will get what they want or get something they like just as much or even more at another time.
This is completely normal and if they don’t like the answer they will ask why or why not until they get an answer they like. It’s just part of their personality.
5. Kids don’t give in, they trade
A child trades good behavior for what it wants, but rarely gives up or gives up what it has asked for. As they negotiate, they even try to make it so that others can benefit as well. Ultimately, that’s what negotiation is all about; it’s child’s play, but we can use it to our advantage if we imitate them in this.
