Catch 'em when they're being good!
Friday, March 18, 2005
I was making cupcakes for my son's classroom last night and as usual, my son decided that the raw cake batter was taking place of dinner, dessert or whatever meal he could substitute sugar for. Naturally, being so wrapped up in the project, I snapped,
"Stay out of the cake batter,"
(as I'm licking my fingers that are full of devil's food cake mix). As I read his expression, I realized, does it really matter? Is it a crime to eat raw cake mix? So, I immediately scooped the spatula into the batter and handed it to him with a smile.
So often we forget the times when our husbands, children or friends are so good, to us and to the world, that we sometimes overreact to the small things. Life is not perfect and we all make mistakes, so how then, in relationships of all kinds do we cope?
In a recent interview for an episode about children, boundaries and discipline, one of my favorite teachers put it so well, she said,
"Catch 'em while they're being good, and it will improve their self esteem and the interaction between adult and child." What great advice!
With this in mind, I suggested to a friend recently, to Journal every time her husband and children were especially "good". Then, when she felt the opposite, she could pull out her journal and "remember" the good times. It's more often than you think.
"When I change the way I look at things, things I look at change"
(Dr. Wayne Dyer-The Power of Intention)
All the best,
Beth Aldrich |
