Babies and Understanding

Understanding someone else's needs

In continuation of our posts prompted by Fatherhood, I had another situation come up recently that gave me food for thought!

Our son had been quite grizzly for a couple of days in the past week. He was playing up, taking a long time to go to bed, waking up through the night and we couldn’t understand why. 

Then one night when I was putting him to bed he came out and said “tooth coming” as he pointed to the back of his jaw ...it all fell into place and made perfect sense! This whole time he had been in pain but not been able to vocalise what was happening. Growing a tooth, I imagine, is extremely painful and would make me really irritable too. He’d been in discomfort and couldn’t work out how to tell us!

The message of the story? It is worth, particularly if you’re in a management position, taking a step back if someone is behaving out of sorts. What’s really going on? Are they in any kind of pain or discomfort physically or emotionally? Someone’s behaviour could be due to a multitude of things and not always something you can see.

Take the time to speak with someone and try to understand the root cause. Most importantly of all understand that the person may not have the ability to actually communicate what is wrong, especially if it is an emotional issue. Or they may not know how to approach the situation. Making sure they know you’re there to listen and give them the support they need will mean so much and may allow that opening.

Give space. Give support. Take the time.

We’re looking for the right person to join the QD team. If you’d like to meet us and have a look around then please do get in touch.