Teach Others How To Treat You

I had never thought of the truth of this statement till about 3 weeks ago. At this point in my life I am honest about where I am and how I feel and I want to know why that is so. In the process of life, I wondered why certain people have wonderful, blooming lives and others are sorely lacking in the same and I discovered it is all about how they respond to others and how others treat them. Let me explain.

I know of a young lady, the third child of her parents and as many other third born’s know life was never easy. Her birth order has made a great difference in her life because of the challenges around her. One of the greatest lessons she learnt early was how to be good to people and get what she need out of them through negotiation and kindness. Life taught her early to talk to people and to deal with things on her own. This helped her hone her ability to get out of any jam she found herself in. The skills she learnt as a child allowed her to be recognised for leadership and preferential treatment since her youth. She had great potential to achieve big things.

Over the years she has made great strides in life and stood with people and helped many sort out their issues. Irony is that in the midst of all this she grew and loved life and had a blast then one day it fell apart. Work, life and motherhood weighed down on her and life became harder than she ever thought it could. When she reached out for help and there was no one there. No one could understand her and even worse, no one believed her pain. No one ever expected her to need support and strengthening. No one knew how to talk to her in pain. The day the struggle hit she held her head high and walked on but after a couple of months of that it came crumbling down on day and she could no longer walk tall but no one noticed. She disappeared from the social groups and no one questioned. When she realised no one was coming she reached out but no one knew what to say….isn’t it ironic? Her past strength became her downfall.

I have spent many days talking and thinking about her and as I have done this, I realise that we albeit unknowingly, teach people how to treat us. If we are super capable and strong, they learn to let us do everything. If we are needy, others learn to avoid us. The world adjusts to the cues we send out and makes the appropriate responses to our behaviour. I had a hard time dealing with this for a while but recently I understood that relationships need to be conditional. God loves all but we must choose to believe to allow him the opportunity to change our lives and those around us. It got me thinking about how I have taught people to treat me. Do those around me know:

  • What is important to me?
  • That I need to be sought after just as I seek them out?
  • What is my love language? What makes me feel loved?
  • That friendship is a two-way street?

I am learning to tell those who matter what it takes to be good friend and I believe this is changing my life one day at a time. I need to let people know that I am a good friend but I also need to be sought out and reminded that others think of me. I need to re-educate my social circle about my needs. How about you? Do you need to teach those around you how to treat you?

3 thoughts on “Teach Others How To Treat You

  1. Priscy

    I read this today and it is like reading about me ..minus the mother hood ….I feel u sister and yea i am having to teach pple how to treat me

  2. Tbagz

    It is true that we need to teach people how to treat us. Now the challenge is to pass this info to the next generation, in my case still young but hopefully it will make sense.

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