Try not to Speak Out of Anger One of the highlights of raising my kids was going up to our family cabin. Wintertime, summertime, early spring ... it didn’t matter. We all loved it there. It was especially enjoyable when we would share our cabin with friends. On one particular trip, our friends came up in a new jet black SUV. Kyle, the father, had wanted this truck for years. It had all the bells and whistles and he was jazzed. The following afternoon, our two sons were racing their bikes around the neighborhood. When the lunchtime bell rang, they sprinted towards the cabin, both vying to be the first back. Kyle’s son, Jesse, misjudged his speed and had to swerve at the last minute to avoid hitting his little sister. Unfortunately, he ran smack dab into the side of his father’s brand new truck. No one was hurt, but the scratch was too big to be buffed out. Jesse felt terrible. He knew how his dad felt about that truck and, in his child mind, he had ruined it forever. I’m not sure how I would’ve handled it with my son if he had scratched my new truck, but I can only hope that I would handle it as well as Kyle did. Kyle quickly saw it for what it was ... an accident. I could tell that Kyle was angry, at first. It would have been easy for him to make Jesse feel even worse by scolding him, but he didn’t. I could almost hear him thinking that his son’s self-esteem was worth more than his brand new truck. Kyle looked at Jesse and asked him if he was all right. Then he told him, “No worries, buddy. I know you didn’t mean to do it. It’s okay. We can get the truck fixed next week.” They hugged. It took Jesse a few minutes to regain his composure. I looked on with a new appreciation for Kyle’s parenting skills and his ability to respond with love rather than with anger. Thanks Kyle, for the being a great example.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Jun 2013 02:54:05 +0000
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