You know those parenting moments when you realize what you did was useful but not helpful??? I had one of those with my daughter today. She prefers her “dedicated” high school baby sitters to having our 20 something housekeeper/babysitter watch her (which is unfair since the housekeeper sitter is only a few weeks into our family and the others have been part of our family for two years or more… but what do you expect from a seven year old?). So when I told her she was going to stay with T. tonight and she expressed dismay, I offered suggestions to both her and T. on how to make it more fun. How much more helpful would i have been in that moment to have said to my daughter, “You know, in life most of the time you don’t get to choose everything about how things go. Things are what they are, and you can make them worse or better with your attitude, thoughts, and actions.”
Not sure if she would have stopped complaining to me in that moment, but I’d have felt better about that as food for thought for her tonight as she spent time with T.
Oh, and I think they did just fine… as T texted me bedtime got pushed a little late because they were styling each other’s hair!
So what about you… did life hand you something today you resented or wished were different? And did you make it better or worse with how you responded?? Love to hear about it!
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