Humanist Thought of the Week

Cats and Humans

I like when my cat reaches out to touch my hand when it is getting ready to nap. 

It’s like – it needs that skin on skin contact to feel secure enough to sleep.

Whenever she does this – I think of Winnie the Pooh. 

There is a story where Piglet reaching out for Pooh’s hand – to be sure of him.

My son does this when he gets scared. 

He reaches out – to me or my husband, to be sure of us.

This is all about security and safety. 

If someone is reaching out to you, reach back  and make that connection.

Have a plan

On the topic of parenting, one of the questions I get a lot is how to get a child to stop behaving badly when the child throws a fit to get their way.

The answer, have a plan!  

You know the child is going to throw a fit when you say no.  

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I’m not perfect

I am a mom. I teach other moms how to parent better. 

I know this stuff and I still lose my cool with my kid sometimes.

For instance: if I am tired, cranky or didn’t get much sleep and I’ve been dealing with a kid who chose today to be oppositional, well, I lose my cool.

Every parent I know has stories of losing it.  And every parent I know feels like a failure when that happens.

On the plus side – we care enough to get it right.

And to me, that’s what matters.  

Not just with parenting, but with life.

I am going to fail sometimes.  And that’s ok.

As long as I pick myself up and learn how to avoid making the same mistakes in the future.

Never Parent While Tired

I’m a pretty good parent.

Not perfect, but not horrid either.

But we had an “incident” the other day that occurred because I was too tired to respond optimally.

This yelling and screaming fight to get a scared child to take medicine reminded me, I’m human too.

I get tired and frustrated too.

And when I do, it’s ok to pass the child off to someone else for a bit who isn’t tired, exhausted and cranky.

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Other People Matter Too

Don’t be so self-absorbed.

The world doesn’t revolve around you and other people matter too.

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