My family has started our month of patience off with a trip to Disney World. Nothing like the “Happiest Place on Earth” to reveal where your patience needs some work. Kids who are overstimulated and overtired, standing in long lines, and crowds, sure provide a space for everyone to practice waiting until later for what they want now. I have been quick to point out impatience in my kids because it is so easy to spot and honestly annoying to listen to. I haven’t been as quick to recognize my own impatience. Really my irritation at their behavior is my own impatience with their maturity. As much as I know this I’m still not sure how to walk in that daily.
How do you stay patient while training them to wait until later for what they want now? My son wanted a glowing Mickey Light Saber the first night at the parks. At the first sight of the glowing toy cart, he was sold! He needed something from there and would have taken ANY of them. I knew from the first time I saw the cart that he would want one and I wanted him to have one. I also knew we were headed to a Star Wars light show later in the week and there would be a better option on the cart then. He mentioned it several times that night and the next day. If you have ever had a kid who wanted something you can imagine! Was this a lesson for him in waiting until later for what he wanted now? Yes, of course. It was more of a lesson for my husband and I as we trained this in him. We wanted to tell him once how much we knew he wanted one, how much we wanted him to have one, and we would buy one for him at the Star Wars show. I’m not sure if he couldn’t grasp it or he didn’t trust us but he gave us several opportunities to practice waiting until later to see something in him we wanted to see now. We handled it well a few times and most of the time we didn’t.
Something I am going to make sure I use the rest of the trip are these Calm Phrases. Our FX resource of the month is CelebrateCalm. We gave away four of their products at FX on Wednesday and they also created these 10 phrases. Maybe I’ll print them and carry them in my pocket for the rest of the trip!