Listening and family communication: How they relate.
             Family communication is important because families who can communicate find it a lot easier to discuss issues, problems, and even crises when they occur. If you know how families work, issues and problems arise often. Listening and becoming a better listener is important because families need to understand each other and be compassionate with one another. Communication patterns affect family relationships in a huge way.
             In chapter 11 of "Interpersonal Communication; relating to others", family is defined as "a social group having specified roles and statuses with ties of blood, marriage, or adoption who usually share a common residence and cooperate economically." There are two ways to look at interactions with family. There is communication between family members and among family members. Communication among family members involves communication of the family in its entirety. Communication between family members looks at each individual relationship.
             The book "Interpersonal Communication; relating to others" defines both communication and interpersonal communication. Communication is defined as the "process of acting on information" and interpersonal communication is defined as "a distinctive form of communication that occurs when you interact with another person and mutually influence each other, usually for the purpose of managing relationships." A family is an interpersonal relationship; a family influences each other every day. A child is influenced by it's parents form the time they are born and there on out. A man might influence a woman because of the influence his family had on him growing up and vice-versa.
             In order to communicate well with your family, you really need to be a good listener. If you don't listen to how they feel and need, how are you going to be there when what they need is you.
             The l...