How often do you give yourself a free pass?
It's more than just the fun stuff, like teaching them to draw or play chess. It's also how to act in a world of actions and consequences.
I'm finding out the hard way that teaching this to a child isn't always a walk in the park. At times, it requires firmness. At times, it can make you frustrated or angry.
Whenever a "behavior adjustment" occasion happens, you get a split second to decide how to react. Are you going to be frustrated? Are you going to raise your voice? Or are you going to give them a pass?
Your daughter figured out she can throw things in the air and, most of the time, make them land safely in her hands. She knows that glass is fragile, but the temptation is too strong.
When we do some grown-up version of breaking the glass we were playing with, it might sound like how we were talked to as kids—only worse. The voice is ours, but the words aren't. We immediately tell ourselves it could have been avoided. We criticize ourselves, sometimes harshly.
I'm a proper adult now (assuming there's such a thing) and a parent. Nobody taught me how to parent my kids; I'm figuring it out as I go.
