They say that 90% of communication is non-verbal. Or is it 75%? I’m not a numbers guy so I don’t really care what the exact statistic is and, since you can’t see my face right now, you really don’t know whether I mean that or not. Regardless, no one can argue with the premise that body language plays an important role in communication.
That's why I don’t like the Facebooking and Twittering world. Short pithy statements without the benefit of facial expressions and body language lead to miscommunication. At least with a blog, I can take a few minutes to support my arguments and emotions rather than just throwing a stupid meaningless statement like “Had a bad day” on Facebook hoping for someone to “like” it so that I can feel like somebody out there in cyberspace likes that fact that I had a bad day thus making me feel loved and cared for. If you can’t give me body language, then at least have the courage to give me a thought-out explanation rather than making me fish it out of you by asking probing questions in the very public arena of the internet.
Fortunately, as a parent of young children, kids don’t communicate with us through text messages and annoying social networking posts. I realize that as they age, my innocent children will turn into teenagers and try to drag me into an e-lationship, but for now, I am totally digging the face-to-face old school parenting style. I love watching their faces as they relive the scattered moments of each day.
My wife and I frequently find ourselves laughing at one of the kids. It’s not just the story he or she is telling, but the facial expressions that go with it. I can’t even begin to capture Justin’s four-year-old face as he asks countless questions that simultaneously crack us up and annoy us to tears. And Cami’s six-year-old inquisitions are accompanied by the most complex assortment of facial cues known to man, but the one that has really been popping up lately is on the face of Maddie.
At eight years old, Maddie Rae has learned to wrinkle her nose at me. This is among the cuter things a lightly-freckled nose can do and it carries a message that she hasn’t conveyed before. She usually gives me the wrinkle after one of the kids asks an unaswerable question such as, “How many elephants are there in Asia?” When presented with such a question, I do what any good father would do. I lie. “There are 7,031 elephants in Asia,” I would begin. Then I would follow it up with further false facts just to make it plainly obvious to most people that I have no idea what I am talking about. “Until last Saturday when a hunter named Bob illegally poached one for its tusks just after a female elephant in the Vietnamese jungle gave birth to twins. Now there at 7,032.”
The younger kids usually enjoy the story and half believe what I say, but Maddie has taken to giving me the wrinkle. She looks right at me and squinches up her little pug nose and conveys a wordless message: You’re bluffing again, Dad and I totally know it! For some reason I find that look amusing and it makes me want to tell more stories just so I can see it again.
I suppose that someday when she is a teenager and she gives me the wrinkle right after I tell her that a particular boy is a puny excuse for a real man the conversation will have to turn serious, but for now, its a fun form of silent communication between a dad and his little girl and I intend to enjoy it while I can.
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