Just Keep Walking
🌟Weekly Inspiration🌟
On vacation recently, we had a hot day of touring and the kids began to whine and complain. It was starting to irritate me…my husband said, “Just keep walking.” We literally just ignored them for a while and it stopped. It made me think about how not everything needs to be acknowledged or aired out. In this child-centered parenting age that we are raising our children in, there is sometimes too much listening, processing, and acknowledging. When toddlers are having a tantrum, often sage parenting advice is to ignore the behavior to help extinguish it. As children get older and become more verbal, we often find ourselves in discussion or debate—when sometimes we ought to ignore, just as we would a tantrum.
Ask yourself:
Is it hard for me to ignore behavior in my child? Why?
Do I find myself engaging (whether discussing or fighting) when sometimes I need to just let it be?
Do I give too much attention at times—unwittingly reinforcing an undesired behavior in my kid?
Was I ever ignored as a child? How did it make me feel?
Is there a way to hear their complaint, acknowledge them, and still choose to move on and ignore?