I Don’t Expect My Children to “Cry It Out”… But I Do Ask Them to Wait.
We’ve all been through the lame spell that is sitting in the doctor’s office waiting room. We sign in, we ask for a same-day appointment, we fill out the required (repeated) paperwork, and then we sit there.
We wait, and we read (flip-through) the old magazines. We cross and uncross our legs in the uncomfortable chairs. We disinterestedly look at the talk show we never watch playing on the ancient TV monitor that must have at some point, some time, fallen and crushed at least a waiting room chair (I’m not the only one who has worried about that before, right?).
But the point is, we could wind up sitting there for hours, but we do it, because we know our turn will come. Our name is on the list, and our doctor will be with us “shortly.”
I offer you this scenario, because I want to use this analogy to explain one small corner of my parenting.
Though when I call it “one small corner” of my parenting style, I mean that it’s only one decision I’ve made in my parenting, among the thousands (millions?!) of others. But I know this decision I’ve made also carries with it a major impact: a…