There are times in our lives when we need to quickly turn a challenging or negative situation into a positive moment in a matter of seconds. These kinds of situations occur a lot when dealing with children. For instance, during a temper tantrum or what could possibly turn into a temper tantrum.
Every challenging situation does not have to be a battle between a parent and a child. You can change an insignificant challenging moment into a moment full of laughter.
How?
Dr.Cohen, a play therapist wrote in his book, Playful Parenting, about his personal challenge of getting his daughter out of the house for school in the mornings. Instead of shouting at her from downstairs, she suggested playing a game where he pretended he was really mad and was shouting at her to come downstairs. “So I shouted upstairs, “we’re late, and I am really mad”! And I started storming around and stamping my foot…” meantime his daughter was behind the door giggling. After a while, he pretends and says that he’s leaving without her and she would walk out of the door with him while he pretends to not see her. Once they are on their way, he would find out she’s already in the car. The tense situation turned into a laughter-filled moment and memory.
You can as a parent change tense situations into a playful challenge. For instance, if getting ready for school in the morning is a challenge; you can say out loud, “I am so going to get ready before Amy today because I am flash”. Once you can start getting ready, guaranteed you will see your child getting ready and a lot quicker than usual. Playfulness usually works better than shouting and rushing children. Also, repeating the same sentence “we are getting late, let’s go now” over and over rarely gets your child to do the task any faster. So the next time you notice a situation that’s driving you nuts, try changing it to a playful moment. Just give it a try and see.