Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Sweeping
As I was sweeping the dining room tonight there were a few crumbs that weren't budging. So I brushed harder and harder, almost to the point of scrubbing, and they either become fixed to that spot or fly off in a different direction than I wanted. Finally, I just brushed them lightly and for some reason they responded to the broom. I've noticed days where my kids are like those crumbs, and sometimes they won't budge when I ask them to do something. And when I push harder, they literally fix themselves to that spot arching their backs or dead-weighting. Or they bolt. Although it's hard to do sometimes when I get home from work, when I provide gentle guidance they respond. An example that shouldn't have taken me so long to figure out is having our four-year old clean his room before bed. He is a very clean little boy, but he gets out his books, games, and toys during "quiet time" (which is our non-napping son's version of nap time), and we usually don't have him clean it up when it's over. I forget that for a four-year old the task seems daunting. I know how hard it is to get started on a big task, so I eventually offered to help him get started instead of employing my usual exasperated approaches of, "Hurry! We're running out of time" or "Come on!" or "Hurry!" It worked. I was able to "sweep" him into cleaning his room.
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