This writing assignment presents me with a unique opportunity, as I am directly in the middle of perhaps the most transitional period I will ever know. My focus will reflect these transitions. As a son who only left the safety of his parents nest what seems like days ago, I will focus partially on the communication system developed by children with their parents. Being still somewhat of a newlywed, I will also focus on communication systems developed by couples. And finally, and most excitedly, as a father of my first child, I will focus on communication systems developed between newly formed family units. Ap

All of that being said, cohabitation is one of the reasons I feel that my wife and I get along as well as we do. I feel that during that ‘transition period,’ we were able to discover and adapt to each other’s ‘quirks,’ and develop communication systems early to keep things together. During the 2 years which we lived together prior to marriage, we laid the foundation for the communication systems we use now on a daily basis. We truly consider ourselves to be a ‘team,’ mostly due to our 2 years experience of making ends meet, and trying to maintain a relationship together at the same time.

Julia T. Wood, author of Interpersonal Communication: Everyday Encounters, might describe this type of manipulation as selective listening, as well as preoccupation. That is certainly accurate in the above scenario. While the parent offered objections which were probably perfectly legitimate, I had the ability to weed those parts out, and focus only on the parts that indicated that I had a chance of changing her mind. In addition during the whole conversation, I would be preoccupied with thoughts of what I was going to do for the night once I had achieved my goal. Wood describes selective listening as, “when we screen out parts of a message that don’t interest us or with which we disagree; conversely, we listen selectively when we rivet attention on topics that do interest us or with which we do agree.” This is certainly true in the scenario between myself and my parents. I definitely screened out the parts I didn’t want to hear and certainly disagreed with my parents point of view. And conversely, I would rivet attention on the parts that hinted that there was a possibility that I could get what I wanted.

I never knew love until June 19, 2001. That is the day that my daughter, Rachael Ann, was born. Until that day, I had never experienced a love so true and so real. She is absolutely, without a doubt, the sunshine of my life. And with Rachael around, there is always somethin

Some topics in this essay:
MOTHER Communication, Everyday Encounters, Cohan Kleinbaum, Rachael Ann, Stacey Kleinbaum, Marriage Family, communication systems, example wife, Julia Wood, communication systems developed, focus communication systems, marital communication, rivet attention, considerate child, develop communication, develop interpret, writing assignment, focus communication, selective listening,