Monday, November 4, 2013

How do you react when someone spills their milk?


In our house we have two different ways as parents that we handle “mistakes”.  When a glass of milk is spilled at dinner what is your gut reaction?  Do you feel frustrated with the person because of their clumsiness or do you rush to help?  I feel like we might need to come to the middle at our house.  One of us (who will not be namedJ) has the frustrated reaction and one of us is too patient.  I guess that is why we work well together.  I can calm him down, but he helps me not let the kids just be careless with no consequence.  I have learned over the last fifteen years of marriage to not react when “he who must not be named” over reacts after someone spills their milk.  That is just his gut reaction and I now know he doesn’t mean it.  He is doing better and tries really hard.  The other night after one of the children spilled their milk for the second time at dinner and I could see it was painful for him, but he held it together.  We laughed and I told the kids to call Grandma and see if he ever spilled milk as a boy.  He responded with “never I was a perfect boy!”  So next time someone “spills milk” think about what your reaction is.  If it is frustration, take a few deep breaths and remember everyone makes mistakes (even the perfect little boy).  Instead of getting mad, help solve the problem (your kids will thank you for it).  Hope everyone has a nice calm day.

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